Forest Complex was developed with the support of
Forest Complex/AU brought together a new multifaceted body of photographic, video, and sound works that observe the complex societal, political, and ecological entanglements surrounding the pressures mountain forests have come under in the wake of the climate emergency. The works in this exhibition delve into the multiple ways in which humanity is responding to the climate emergency. It runs in parallel to an experimental and speculative replanting project that targets forests that are essential for the critical safety function of Alpine Forests.
CLEARANCE, 3 Channel video installation, stereo sound, 19’29” 2024
This three-channel video installation follows the process of removal of uporooted and windsnapped trees in the wake of storms that swept across the Alps in the summer of 2023 devastating an estimated 2000 hectares of forest in Tirol and leaving 3.3 million cubic meters of damaged wood in an area that stretched across the Alps from Switzerland via Austria to Croatia. The downed wood increases risk of bark beetle infestations, obstruction of rivers, and mudslides making the swift clear up process of affected areas critical.
Clearance follows the clear up process of the 145-meter-deep gorge that houses the Hasselbach stream near Fügen. The sides of this gorge are so steep that the fallen trees had to be pulled off its walls by helicopter. Too heavy, numerous, and costly to be thus lifted away the trees were dropped to the bottom of the gorge, creating a flood risk. A two-tonne cable had to be stretched across the gorge, to rope each tree out of the gorge one by one. The piles of tree trunks accumulated in the riverbed were so precarious that it was too dangerous to work with large crews. Clearance was shot over a two-month period. It witnesses the Sisyphean task of a man working mainly on his own, as he skillfully negotiates the 10 meter deep piles of wood proceeding to clear out one log at a time.
Single channel Video, Stereo Sound, 11“05‘, 2023
Woodworks follows the next stage of the relentless cycle of destruction and reconstruction of the storm damaged wood. From the observation platform of a sawmill the work observes the automated process of wood being transformed into a marketable product. The timber yard that stretches as far as the eye can see is a part of the largest wood manufacturing conglomerate in Europe.
Each region in Austria has an allowance of cubic meters of wood that can be cut per year. For the area surrounding Hasselbach the annual allowance was exceeded by 80% due to the storms. The abundance of wood that has flooded the market as a result of this triggered a price drop 25-35% per cubic meter of wood, with devasting financial outcomes for the farmers. Woodworks visualises this relentless chain of production that wood farmers are compelled to continue to feed.
Forest Complex: Publication
ROOTS
35mm Slide Show Installation
Roots archives the devastation left behind by Storm Vaia five years after the event. It focuses on the area most affected in east Tirol, the Kals Valley. With winds of up to 200 km/h and extreme downpours Storm Vaia downed an estimated 15 million trees from Italy to Croatia in a matter of minutes. In Austria this resulted in 2.1 million cubic meters of damaged wood. Three thousand property owners whose land was affected saw a drop of twenty Euros per square meter of wood within two weeks of the storm. In East Tirol, just over sixty percent of the affected areas were those that would be considered critical for the protection of human habitation and infrastructure. The fallen trees presented the perfect breeding ground for pine beetle infestations and the consequences continue to visible throughout the area. In an attempt to combat the infestation and to cover financial losses tree trunks were cut off from their roots. These truncated upturned roots left behind are the subject-matter of Roots. The work captures the moment five years after the storm as the remains are gradually being reclaimed by nature.
TREEWORK ‘23-’24
This two channel sound installation takes its cue from new research that shows that plants emit ultrasounds to signal distress when under duress. Though these sounds are not audible to the human ear, they are audible to insects and other plants and are further evidence of the complex ways of communication that we are only just starting to find out about. These are recordings are of spruce trees that are subject to pine beetle infestations. They are of the cavitation pulses that the tree emits as it is being robbed of its life supply.
Single channel video, Stereo Sound
Ne me Quitte Pas takes its cue from research into how plants react to sound. Studies into plant biology claim that regular exposure to music, especially classical music, allows plants to grow faster and develop a stronger immune system. In a playful interpretation of these findings, a teenage girl performs Jacques Brel’s mournful love-song oft he same title to the scarred trees, begging the trees not to give up on her.
Some Kind of Love is a body of photographic works that documents trees that have entered into relationships with one another. It visualises the many sentient ways in which non-human entities interact and communicate with one another in ways that we are only starting to be able to understand. These images present us with examples of the astonishing things that can happen when an ecosystem is left to its own devices.
Here we see a Giant Sequoia wrapping itself around an Incense Cedar in what is called a ‘competition-symbiotic relationship’, or a relationship that is described as one where neither species draws any specific benefits from interaction. Eventually the Giant Sequoia will completely enwrap the Incense Cedar. There are images that show the various stages of inosculation: the process of a naturally occurring phenomenon where trunks, branches, or roots of two trees grow together. The term inosculation derives from Latin and can be translated as meaning “to kiss” to “touch closely” and “to union”. Here we see trees that have entered into relationships where they feed and sustain each other. Some of these relationships are mutualistic and each species reaps benefits from being in close proximity with the other. Others are non-symbiotic relationships where neither species depends on the other or symbiotic, relationships defined as complete interdependency. Finally, we see what are called ‘nurse logs’ and ‘nurse stumps’ that facilitate the growth of new seedlings, by providing water, mycorrhizae, and nutrients as they decay. With new knowledge and understanding that is currently emerging about the way trees communicate with one another, below and above ground, over the years this series of images has become re-inscribed with new meanings.
PORTRAITS Single channel Video, Stereo Sound, 09“05‘ 2023
This is a series of videoportraits of people - farmers and workers - who have been directly affected by the impacts of climate-related challenges to Alpine Forests, be it through the loss of their forests, the risks associated with forest clearance, the increased pressure on their habitats, economic pressures, and the increased workloads in emergency situations.
The plight of the forest is the plight of those looking after it. Financial pressures mean that many farmers are abandoning their farms to seek employment elsewhere and the dangerous working conditions of the clear up processes after storms and bark beetle infestations make it increasingly difficult to find workforces
FOREST INSTALL, C-type Print, 2023