Staring at Two Oak Trees Staring at each other for 200 Minutes at Night
This project was conceived and made for the Freedom in Isolation – Creative Arts Online Exhibition – Live for 24 hours – Friday 15th May 12.00 midday – Saturday 16th May 12.00 midday.
I set up one of my new young oak trees to stare at another new young oak tree for 200 minutes. The performance was live streamed for 15 minutes 3 times between 2.45am and 6.00am.
Links to 3 live streams Staring at Two Oak Trees Staring at each other for 200 Minutes at Night
Part one – https://www.twitch.tv/videos/625840467
Part two – https://www.twitch.tv/videos/625853644
Part three – https://www.twitch.tv/videos/625862988
I loved the idea of using the live stream platform to watch nature, in line with Nature Watch and the culture of webcams on fledglings, mating pairs, breeding pairs, birds and animals returning and leaving nests, warrens, sets, lairs etc, but in this case nothing was happening, except the minute by minute growth of a pair of oak trees that could potentially grow to be hundreds of years old, which is in itself profound. I loved the reverence the trees evoked, the way I tiptoed around, whispering, careful to not disturb the trees as they stared at each other in the night. Potentially hundreds of people could also have been watching them watch each other. The act of staring is an act of paying attention, to pay attention is to invest, to invest is to engage, to engage is to get close, to get close is to know, to know is to understand, to understand is to value, to value is to care, to care is to support, to support is to love, to love is to have a relationship.
