Echo Wood is a landmark collaboration between artist Luke Jerram and charity Avon Needs Trees. It is a breathtaking new artwork made from 365 living trees.
Go to www.echo-wood.co.uk to get involved.
The Vision
Planted this winter, the native trees will slowly grow into a vast 110-metre-wide design. Blossoming at different times of year, pathways and avenues will be created to guide visitors on a journey through the forest towards a central circular gathering space, formed from 12 English oak trees. Echo Wood will take a century to fully emerge – but will endure for generations.
This living sculpture is part of Lower Chew Forest, a bold new project creating 422 acres of new woodland, orchard, wetlands and nature-rich habitats between the villages of Compton Dando and Hunstrete, Somerset.
“It’s extraordinary to create an artwork that will take decades to reach its full form — one that will live and breathe alongside the people and wildlife of Somerset for centuries to come.”
— Luke Jerram
Created as both a public artwork and as a fundraising mechanism, through the sponsorship of the trees, the project has raised more than £100,000 so far, for the charity and the artwork’s maintenance.
The trees planted for the artwork will grow alongside an expansive and beautiful new forest, providing refuge for wildlife and stand as a powerful symbol in the fight against climate change. One day, the wood from this artwork will be sustainably harvested and used for educational and creative projects, before the trees are replanted to then continue the cycle of life.
Working with schools and the local community we hope this artwork will inspire the next generation of people to care about the environment and the planet. We hope Echo Wood will be a legacy for everyone involved.
Avon Needs Trees has unveiled plans to bury this specially commissioned Acorn shaped time capsule at the heart of Echo Wood.
The giant stainless steel acorn filled with messages for future generations will become the latest chapter in one of the South West’s most ambitious artworks. Before its burial, the acorn will tour local schools and communities who will be invited to write messages to future generations about the world they hope to see in 50 years’ time. Tour dates will be announced on the Avon Needs Trees website, ahead of a public celebration and burial ceremony.
Fabricated by artist Michael Turner, the time capsule will be buried alongside photographs of the landscape before the new forest was created.
The acorn will then remain sealed for 50 years before being opened as a record of today’s Chew Valley and the hopes people held for its future. The charity will also include a pledge for nature, setting out its mission and ambitions for the forest as it grows over the coming decades.
Press Coverage
The Guardian Artist Luke Jerram on the tree-planting project he’ll never see finished
BBC Lanterns Reveal Scale Of New Living Trees Artwork
Bristol 24/7 Tree Based Living Sculpture To Come To Bristol
Bristol 24/7 West Of England Celebrates Tree Planting Milestone
Bristol 24/7 Crop circle night glow illuminates ‘living Stonehenge’