The following 21 tree stories come from Chengdu , they emerge from the A4 artist residency in September October 2024. A huge thank to A4 artist residency for your support throughout preparations, workshops and recordings. Special thanks to videographer Xiao Qin 晓琴/Vicky and her camera team and of course to all the people who contributed their tree stories here. .
Tree Story # 92 comes from Xia Yu who wrote me several different stories and decided to tell an early memory from her childhood. Xia Yu is quite passionate about trees and even arrived for the workshop and recording with a tree image painted on her face.
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Xia Yu’s words:
There were two big trees right in front of our house.
When I was small my father would place a water hose
between the two trees with the hose hanging down
And he would just stand there between the two trees and take a shower
My parents also took many photos of me when I was a kid.
Sometimes I would hold a small red basin and wash my socks under those trees.
Through the recording of images like this
they recorded my growth
I believe that the two big trees at the door
are also a witness to the happy times of our family
The tree is a witness. Although it may not be there now,
and that place has been occupied by high-rise buildings,
that memory is very precious to me.
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Open Call for your just a minute Tree Story on video
Memory Palace of Tree Stories is a socio-ecological art practice which invites you to tell a story or share information about trees . It is a creative-led social enquiry of how we can live well for both personal and collective wellbeing. Your story can be any kind of tree story , a personal tree story, an ecological tree story , an environmental tree story, an historical tree story or even a botanical tree story. I do hope you can contribute a comment on how we can live better with the greater community of life.
The year 2024 we continue to gather your stories in the form of one minute videos and we are really looking forward to hearing your tree story . I can be contacted directly on this platform or on the contact page on this website.
Niamh Cunningham
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#1 Teardrops After a Storm
#2 Pomegranate Tree
#3 Trees are like Humans
#4 Old Ash – A Real Survivor
#5 Tree Rings of Life
#6 A Very Weird Elf
#7 Old Crabapple of Wenhua Dian
#8 Standing Fast
#9 Feeling Good – Tree Song
#10 Forest Breath – Tree Story
#11 Protective Peach – Tree Story
#12 Bee Tree (Part 1) Sycamore
#13 Winter Apples
#14 Ancient Yew Trees
#15 Once I Counted Birds
#16 Family Oak
#17 When the Trees Say Everything
#18 Strawberry Tree
#19 Mother Oak and Baby Oak
#20 My Leylandii
#21 Chestnut Repotted
#22 Native Birch
#23 Ethan’s Tree
#24 Holding Trunk of Time
#25 Our Mother’s Legacy
#26 It Blossomed
#27 Always Trying To Hold Each Other Up
#28 Wollemi Pine
#29 Barrow Willow
#30 For What We Might Become
#31 Sheltering Beech
#32 Millennium Monkey Puzzle
#33 Monterey Cyprus
#34 Struggle On, Struggle On
#35 Like A Chestnut
#36 Head and Shoulders Above
#37 An Dair Sean
#42 Unusual Bauhinia
# 46 Berna’s Umbrella Tree
#47 Hawthorne , it gives and it gives
#48 Apple Tree Swing
#49 Forest Bathing 1
#50 Forest Bathing 2
#51 Mulberry -when Swiss watches were almost made in Waterford
#52 Prunus Kanzan , double blossom Cherry blossom
#53 Oak We absolutely love it!
#54 Pre-Famine Timber
#55 Slogged Apples
#56 Ash Determined to stay put
#57 Best Apple Tart in Headford
#58 Apple Tree of Clonmel
#59 Horizontal Arbutus Unedo
#60 Euonymus Zones
#61 How big they can get
#62 Autumn Maple
#63 The Magic of Moss
#64 Gallipoli and the Sycamore
#65 Liquid Amber
#66 Hardmount Chestnut
#67 Silver Birch – a gentle lovely ending
#68 Keeping Black Bird Company
#69 Tulip Tree
#70 Itea Iliciafolia
#71 Silver Birch Moonlight
#72 The Shape of it
#73 The Missing Gorilla
#74 The Tree House
#75 Bat Burglars
#76 The Perfect Conker
#77 Ginkgo Biloba and Sweet Gum
#78 Ash The Horse Whisperer
#79 Healers
#80 Fairy Ash
# 86 Devine Tree of SanXingdui
#87 Chestnut of Xishan
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Open Call for your just a minute Tree Story on video
Memory Palace of Tree Stories is a socio-ecological art practice which invites you to tell a story or share information about trees . It is a creative-led social enquiry of how we can live well for both personal and collective wellbeing. Your story can be any kind of tree story , a personal tree story, an ecological tree story , an environmental tree story, an historical tree story or even a botanical tree story. I do hope you can contribute a comment on how we can live better with the greater community of life.
The year 2024 we continue to gather your stories in the form of one minute videos and we are really looking forward to hearing your tree story . I can be contacted directly on this platform or on the contact page on this website.
Niamh Cunningham
Niamh Cunningham