The Art for Trees Project: Feb 21, 2010

The Art For Trees Project

On the 20th November 1769 Captain Cook ventured up the Waihou River, named by him that day the Thames. His journal entry tells of “ lofty trees which adorne its banks....” and a tree he measured “that girted 19 feet 8 inches 6 feet above the ground….its length from the root to the first branch to be 89 feet…as straight as an arrow…"
( J.C Beaglehole, 1955).
His companion Joseph Banks described ...the finest timber my eyes ever beheld ….thick woods of it were everywhere upon the Banks, every tree as straight as a pine and of immense size…... (J.C Beaglehole,1962)

Today, if you were to follow in Cook’s wake up the river Waihou, your gaze would be met not with magnificent native swamp forest, but acid green dairy pasture stretching away between stop banks and macrocarpa shelter belts. Of the vanished giant Kahikatea there remains only a few scrappy fragments.

The Art for Trees Project pays homage to what Cook saw that day in 1769. To the giant tree he measured not far from the spot he went ashore. The artist, Fiona Garlick, has made a forest of 400 ceramic bottles representing some of the native trees and shrubs which once adorned the banks of the Waihou, and which have been displaced by the introduced species associated with farming.

YOU BUY A BOTTLE ..... A TREE WILL BE PLANTED

For every bottle sold, a tree will be planted across the river from Cook’s Landing site. This restorative planting program will take place in partnership with Environment Waikato with the aim of establishing an area of self sustaining native wetlands.

When will planting take place?
Planting date confirmed for Saturday 25th July 2009.

Where?
At Ferry Road Pond, on the banks of the Waihou River near where State Highway 2 meets Hauraki Road. See map.

What will be planted?
Seedlings of the plants and shrubs represented by the artwork plus many more varieties that will help to establish the complex wetlands ecosystem.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

SOLD OUT!

Thanks to really good crowds at Stoneleigh Sculpture in the Gardens at the Auckland Botanic Gardens ..I have sold out of bottles. Yep finito! All 400! A part of me is a little relieved that its all over as I feel I can move on to something new, and another part of me is a little sad. Just three little bottles sitting on my sideboard..... to remind me of my endeavour. Oh and a future Kahikatea forest let us not forget! I can't wait to do a drive by of our little seedlings when I am up in the North Island next to see how they are getting on. And of course I have to make plans re the next planting. So its not really over ....just at another level. Thanks to all my purchasors! Tree girl

SOURCES

Parkinson, Sydney. A Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas in HMS Endeavour. London, 1773
Park, Geoff. Nga Uruora - The Groves of Life : ecology and history in a New Zealand landscape Victoria University Press,1995
J.C. Beaglehole ( ed.) The Endeavour Journal of Joseph Banks 1768-1771, Volumes 1 & 2 Halstead Press, Sydney, 1962
J.C. Beaglehole (ed.) The Journals of Captain James Cook on his Voyages of Discovery Volume 1: The Voyage of the Endeavour Parts 1 and 2 Hakylut Society, 1964, reprinted N.Y 1988
Adams, Brian, 1934- Flowering of the Pacific: being an account of Joseph Banks' travels in the South Seas and the story of his Florilegium British Museum, London 1986