The Apple Tree ( As a Flag)

The Apple Tree ( As a Flag )

The Apple Tree ( As a Flag)

Growing up in a remote town alongside indigenous communities in the Colombian Amazon, I witnessed the area being gentrified, exploited and destroyed. Galvanised by these changes, the presented work challenges and responds to the pressing global issues of climate change, environmental degradation and the evident deficiencies in modern socio-political structures and decision making.
Four years ago I adopted an Apple Tree, rescuing it from a construction site where it was about to be destroyed. I decided to give it a chance, taking it home and planting the tree in a pot. Happily, the tree responded well and has even given me some apples.
To develop the shape of the tree, I used bonsai art techniques, cutting some branches and wiring others, so that they grew in a direction to form the shape of a flag. I continued to train the tree over time to reinforce its emerging form.
This flag is alive! As an artist I can say that it’s a live sculpture that grows but, if neglected, it will die. The flag lives at the same time as being manipulated to take the direction and shape that I determine for it. I feel that the wired branches are how many people in the world experience their lives: they are wired and tied, their growth controlled and manipulated. Their roots are constrained and not allowed to expand.
Every time I wire a branch to move it in the direction I want, it represents an oppressive force, echoed in the frustration many people feel when they find it impossible to protect their own territories. The cut, discarded branches represent those people that want to be free, that want to express themselves and have a say, yearning visibility, a chance, opportunities. But they are silenced by being cut. Those who remain are like those wired branches: manipulated, controlled, oppressed. I see the action of controlling the growth of the tree’s branches and roots as a very aggressive and destructive act - a metaphor for the harm inflicted upon many who are trying to protect our planet.

Planet Earth is injured, in pain and slowly dying through mankind’s destruction. The efforts of many people around the world who work to save it and counter devastation and environmental catastrophe are in most cases in vain. Global Witness’s investigative journalists expose environmental atrocities and scandals around the world and the harm inflicted by the self interest of individuals, companies, politicians and governments. Global Witness’s last annual report identified 227 environmentalists murdered in 2020, directly as a result of their efforts to defend and heal our planet from the damage caused by human activities, such as mining, agriculture or deforestation. 2020 was the worst year on record for people killed defending their homes, land, livelihoods and the ecosystems vital for biodiversity and the climate. Colombia is the country with the highest death toll in each of the last two years.

The Apple Tree’s cut branches represent those souls that were silenced for having a voice, the braveness to defend our planet.
The Apple Tree is planted in a plastic container representing industry and consumerism that together impact most on climate change and the natural world. My own passion, anger and frustrations were vented when rescuing the Apple Tree from the construction site, from where it lost its own territory to end up with a life in a plastic pot. Think how many trees have been needlessly felled and cleared with no chance of a life at all. All living things depend upon each other: humans, other animals, plants, fungi and micro-organisms, all of us descended from a common ancestor.
The work contrasts environmental destruction, in places like the Amazon, with the artificial environment of indoor plants, where we strive to control and manipulate houseplants constraining them in pots. Is this similar to our lives being controlled and constrained by invisible pots and wires?
The Apple Tree is being manipulated, both its visible branches and also its invisible roots. Each of our personal landscapes are being shaped, depending on the society we live in, by its politics, government and the Establishment. The Apple Tree has many connotations: religious, sexual, nutritional, industrial, environmental, political, social.
I will continue to prune and train the tree into a flag-like shape, so that finally it forms a flag on a flagpole, a worldwide symbol. Governments frequently adopt a symbolic position – like a flag – but largely only talk, absent meaningful action or robust inter-governmental solutions for pressing environmental and climate issues. Yet actions are urgently needed before is too late. Our place in this world is on a countdown.
“We will be allowed to live on this planet only as long as we treat all of nature with compassion and intelligence.” Aldous Huxley
We only have this planet, we are not alone and we depend on others human and non-humans to live, every action and decision taken impacts sooner or later on our own lives.
Some of the artists I researched that provided inspiration in support of my ideas and work were: John Gerrard, who created a simulated flag of black smoke as a symbol of climate change; Abraham Cruzvillegas at the Turbine Hall in Tate Modern - The site for Empty Lot; and Anselm Kieffer’s installation - Over your cities grass will grow.
The work also references Donna J. Haraway’s book “Staying with the Trouble”, in which she proposes reconfiguring our relationship with Planet Earth in times of increasing ecological devastation. Rebecca Tamas also questions the relationship between human and non-human beings. Her book of essays, “Stranger”, is also a reflection on how to reconnect with our currently unloved world in this critical time of rapid extinctions.
We live in a time of devastation. The destructive impacts of industrialised societies are progressively destroying the planet.
In summary, my aim with my Apple Tree as a flag was to create a work that reflects upon humanity’s destructive behaviour within the political and social construct that is devastating our environment. While the planet is in meltdown and governments cannot agree how to solve today’s environmental damage, there is still hope as long as someone, somewhere is a guardian of planet Earth. Safeguard and restore natural habitats and ecosystems to preserve the planets biodiversity, stimulating discussion and actions about preserving biodiversity in the face of a changing climate.

Growing up in a remote town alongside indigenous communities in the Colombian Amazon, I witnessed the area being gentrified, exploited and destroyed. Galvanised by these changes, the presented work challenges and responds to the pressing global issues of climate change, environmental degradation and the evident deficiencies in modern socio-political structures and decision making.
Four years ago I adopted an Apple Tree, rescuing it from a construction site where it was about to be destroyed. I decided to give it a chance, taking it home and planting the tree in a pot. Happily, the tree responded well and has even given me some apples.
To develop the shape of the tree, I used bonsai art techniques, cutting some branches and wiring others, so that they grew in a direction to form the shape of a flag. I continued to train the tree over time to reinforce its emerging form.
This flag is alive! As an artist I can say that it’s a live sculpture that grows but, if neglected, it will die. The flag lives at the same time as being manipulated to take the direction and shape that I determine for it. I feel that the wired branches are how many people in the world experience their lives: they are wired and tied, their growth controlled and manipulated. Their roots are constrained and not allowed to expand.
Every time I wire a branch to move it in the direction I want, it represents an oppressive force, echoed in the frustration many people feel when they find it impossible to protect their own territories. The cut, discarded branches represent those people that want to be free, that want to express themselves and have a say, yearning visibility, a chance, opportunities. But they are silenced by being cut. Those who remain are like those wired branches: manipulated, controlled, oppressed. I see the action of controlling the growth of the tree’s branches and roots as a very aggressive and destructive act - a metaphor for the harm inflicted upon many who are trying to protect our planet.

Planet Earth is injured, in pain and slowly dying through mankind’s destruction. The efforts of many people around the world who work to save it and counter devastation and environmental catastrophe are in most cases in vain. Global Witness’s investigative journalists expose environmental atrocities and scandals around the world and the harm inflicted by the self interest of individuals, companies, politicians and governments. Global Witness’s last annual report identified 227 environmentalists murdered in 2020, directly as a result of their efforts to defend and heal our planet from the damage caused by human activities, such as mining, agriculture or deforestation. 2020 was the worst year on record for people killed defending their homes, land, livelihoods and the ecosystems vital for biodiversity and the climate. Colombia is the country with the highest death toll in each of the last two years.

The Apple Tree’s cut branches represent those souls that were silenced for having a voice, the braveness to defend our planet.
The Apple Tree is planted in a plastic container representing industry and consumerism that together impact most on climate change and the natural world. My own passion, anger and frustrations were vented when rescuing the Apple Tree from the construction site, from where it lost its own territory to end up with a life in a plastic pot. Think how many trees have been needlessly felled and cleared with no chance of a life at all. All living things depend upon each other: humans, other animals, plants, fungi and micro-organisms, all of us descended from a common ancestor.
The work contrasts environmental destruction, in places like the Amazon, with the artificial environment of indoor plants, where we strive to control and manipulate houseplants constraining them in pots. Is this similar to our lives being controlled and constrained by invisible pots and wires?
The Apple Tree is being manipulated, both its visible branches and also its invisible roots. Each of our personal landscapes are being shaped, depending on the society we live in, by its politics, government and the Establishment. The Apple Tree has many connotations: religious, sexual, nutritional, industrial, environmental, political, social.
I will continue to prune and train the tree into a flag-like shape, so that finally it forms a flag on a flagpole, a worldwide symbol. Governments frequently adopt a symbolic position – like a flag – but largely only talk, absent meaningful action or robust inter-governmental solutions for pressing environmental and climate issues. Yet actions are urgently needed before is too late. Our place in this world is on a countdown.
“We will be allowed to live on this planet only as long as we treat all of nature with compassion and intelligence.” Aldous Huxley
We only have this planet, we are not alone and we depend on others human and non-humans to live, every action and decision taken impacts sooner or later on our own lives.
Some of the artists I researched that provided inspiration in support of my ideas and work were: John Gerrard, who created a simulated flag of black smoke as a symbol of climate change; Abraham Cruzvillegas at the Turbine Hall in Tate Modern - The site for Empty Lot; and Anselm Kieffer’s installation - Over your cities grass will grow.
The work also references Donna J. Haraway’s book “Staying with the Trouble”, in which she proposes reconfiguring our relationship with Planet Earth in times of increasing ecological devastation. Rebecca Tamas also questions the relationship between human and non-human beings. Her book of essays, “Stranger”, is also a reflection on how to reconnect with our currently unloved world in this critical time of rapid extinctions.
We live in a time of devastation. The destructive impacts of industrialised societies are progressively destroying the planet.
In summary, my aim with my Apple Tree as a flag was to create a work that reflects upon humanity’s destructive behaviour within the political and social construct that is devastating our environment. While the planet is in meltdown and governments cannot agree how to solve today’s environmental damage, there is still hope as long as someone, somewhere is a guardian of planet Earth. Safeguard and restore natural habitats and ecosystems to preserve the planets biodiversity, stimulating discussion and actions about preserving biodiversity in the face of a changing climate.

At the time I rescued, adopted and planted the Apple Tree in a plastic pot, it was 1.5m high, and its longest branch reached out 70cm. After wiring and turning the branches to one side, the tree’s branches and leaves had a depth of around 30cm. It weighed 11kg. However, the Apple Tree is a living sculpture: its dimensions change with the seasons and as it grows.

The submitted video (1min. 34 sec.) captures my performance bending and wiring branches, pruning and shaping the Apple Tree into a flag. It was Spring and the tree was already in full leaf. Its shape and dimensions had already been significantly changed by the work I had previously undertaken.

At the time I rescued, adopted and planted the Apple Tree in a plastic pot, it was 1.5m high, and its longest branch reached out 70cm. After wiring and turning the branches to one side, the tree’s branches and leaves had a depth of around 30cm. It weighed 11kg. However, the Apple Tree is a living sculpture: its dimensions change with the seasons and as it grows.

The submitted video (1min. 34 sec.) captures my performance bending and wiring branches, pruning and shaping the Apple Tree into a flag. It was Spring and the tree was already in full leaf. Its shape and dimensions had already been significantly changed by the work I had previously undertaken.

https://www.globalwitness.org/en/

https://vimeo.com/507264121

www.tomedes.co.uk