Oxford alumna Angela Palmer is taking her evocative art installation ‘Ghost Forest’ from Trafalgar Square to Copenhagen in order to draw attention to the impact of climate change.
‘Ghost Forest’ is a display of 10 stumps, some weighing over 20 tonnes, from the rainforest in Ghana. It is designed to draw attention to the impact of climate change, and specifically deforestation. This is what Palmer, a graduate of Exeter College and The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, calls “the removal of world’s ‘lungs’, responsible for a fifth of global carbon emissions. Laser beams will mark the heights the enormous trees would have stood at, had they not been felled.
The project was assisted by a number of Oxford staff, including Dr Yiannis Ventikos and Bob Scott from the Department of Engineering Science, and Professor Yadvinder Mahli from Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute, who helped with logistics and advice.
The ten rainforest trees are made up of seven different species logged in Ghana. In the past fifty years, the West African country has lost 90% of its rainforest, in a polluting industrial process that destroys rare ecosystems and removes plants vital for taking carbon dioxide out of the air. Palmer told Cherwell that her “aim is really to inspire debate about rainforests and I hope that’s what all these videos/press/interviews will do. The response has been amazing.”
The ‘Ghost Forest’ will also be seen by 11,000 delegates from the UN climate change conference, people from over 192 countries who will be making many of the political decisions on climate change.
Mae Penner, Chair of OUSU’s Environment & Ethics Campaign said, “deforestation should be one of the first things people think of when climate change is mentioned. This beautiful and unusual exhibition may go some way to making this case. While I don’t believe the primary function of art is to promote political messages, I do believe that it can provide a space for reflection on the culture we live in. Deforestation is one symptom of a culture focused on never-ending economic growth, so it is a deserved subject for artists.”
