Treelines - here and there.
The Nickle Galleries
April 5th to July 21, 2023.
Crocheted trees made from wool and recycled plastic bags, colour photographs and video. ongoing from 2018
Treelines - here and there is an ongoing installation series of cocheted trees and large format photographs and video projections shot in locations in Scotland and British Columbia. Fifty unique trees (to date) have been crocheted and placed in situ in areas previously logged, where they are photographed and videod. They convey a vulnerability and fragility, incongruous against backdrops of clearcuts, slag heaps, and powerlines that depict the crocheted trees situated across a variety of landscapes.The photographs, video and trees are exhibited together in a gallery space.
In the exhibition at The Nickle Gallery in 2023 the hand-made crocheted trees and their shadows filled the gallery space. Grouped together in the gallery, they became approachable and intimate objects with a plush, almost stuffed animal feel at a scale that is relatable. Accompanying the trees was a large scale video projection and ten large format photographs that show the trees in situ in both Scotland and BC. Serving as stand-ins for what would have grown in the area – whether larch or rowan, ponderosa pine or aspen – the crocheted wool trees read both as specific species and as trees in general. The plastic trees also have another register—they remain alien looking, intentionally toxic or a little ghostly.
The project is meant to provoke questions and thoughts about land use, the legacy of colonialization and our collective relationship to land in a time of climate crisis. The images and videos juxtapose selective moments captured against the vast scale of environmental change. To date the project has been undertaken in the interior of British Columbia, a clearcut in Jordan River on Vancouver Island, the Outer Hebrides in Scotland and in Greece. Future plans include regions in Ontario.
More current iterations can be found at:
https://gwenmacgregor.com/Treelines-Kelowna-Art-Gallery-2025
and
https://gwenmacgregor.com/Treelines-Jordan-River-2024
