Every Third Breath: The Art of Seeing Trees (Show Notes)
On Gone Foresting: An RFS Podcast Annabel Narayanan, director of Action Oak, hosted a discussion with Tim Craven, founder of The Arborealists, and Ersin Han Ersin, director of Marshmallow Laser Feast, on the art and exploration of trees and woodlands.
The Arborealists
Formed in 2013 as the brain-child of artist and curator Tim Craven, The Arborealists came after the success of an exhibition titled Under the Green Wood: Picturing the British Tree. Various exhibitions and site specific collections continued, and the way the artists promoted trees and woodlands obviously caught the attention of professionals in the forestry sector.
Dr George Peterken OBE, a well-respected forest ecologist, introduced Tim Craven and The Arborealists to Lady Park Wood, an ancient semi-natural wood on the border of England and Wales. This site was left to the wild for 150 years, and where natural processes have been studied by ecologists for over 80 years. What came out of that exploration was the beautiful book “Art Meets Ecology” written by Peterken, Craven, and Christiana Payne, published in 2020. It was described as both a compendium of original artworks and an explanation of how natural woodland works, and was featured in the Royal Forestry Society Book Club during the pandemic lockdown.
Peterken also introduced them to Staverton Park in Suffolk, an oak parkland and a dense natural woodland. From this came a book featuring a collection of artwork titled “Forests, Woods & Groves” by Philippa Beale released 2024 which included an exploration of the woodland itself by Peterken.
In both of these works it became clear that art and ecology worked together to deepen their understanding of each other. To find more publications including their latest “Forests, Woods & Groves (Art from The Arborealists)” at www.arborealists.com
Marshmallow Laser Feast
Founded in 2012, this London-based creative studio and artist collective, aims to make complex issues within the natural world relatable and tangible. In contrast to the traditional world of fine art and sculpture, this studio uses a wide range of disciplines including installations, live performance, and immersive technologies which combine scientific knowledge and human senses.
Ersin Han Ersin, describes a revelatory experience when visiting Grisedale Forest, a Forestry England site in the heart of the Lake District World Heritage Site. Coincidentally Grizedale has hosted sculptures throughout it’s 4,000 acres since 1977, complimenting the various trees species including the inspiring Giant Redwoods (sequoiadendron giganteum).
Naturally as Marshmallow Laser Feast developed works looking at the world around us, various forests and trees were featured. Museum of the Future, permanently displayed at The HEAL Institute in Dubai since 2022, explored four interconnected environments including the Amazon Rainforest highlighting ecology, biodiversity, and our interdependence with the planets health. Research was integral to the project, including tropical ecological surveys, cultural understandings on the place, as well as carbon sequestration and other climate studies.
More recently, Of the Oak, commissioned by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, was released in 2025 and celebrated the oak tree as a network of relationships. Collaborating with ecologists, biologists, and researchers, the installation invited the viewer to witness the tree as a living and connected shelter for thousands of species moving rhythmically through it’s branches and under the soil. The piece used photogrammetry, LiDAR scanning, CT scans, live sound recording, and ground penetrating radar. It is also accompanied by an online field guide as well as poetic meditations to invite reflection.
Tell Me More
Tim Craven recommended “Hidden Life of Trees; What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World” as The Arborealists bible.
Sunday Times Bestseller ‘A paradigm-smashing chronicle of joyous entanglement’ Charles Foster.
Ersin recommended “Breath of the Oak“, the meditations created to invite you to sit with a tree and tune into the invisible bond between humans and trees.
You can also go further into the Of the Oak artwork through the online field guide which will give you further information about the interconnected species living alongside the oak tree itself.
In the Gone Foresting podcast episode, Ersin also mentioned the deficit of trees and how we might come to understand the need for more tree cover in our environments.
Action Oak is working hard to protect out native oaks, and have produced a major new report reveals a convergence of threats unseen in modern times. Click the link below for more information.
RFS also has Grants for Resilience to help encourage and support projects of woodland creation and tree planting.
Further Resources
- The Majesty of Trees collection; Moorcroft X RFS X Action Oak
- Into the woods: forests and trees in the artistic imagination (Ben Tufnell, Art UK)
- FOREST: Four faculties collaborate with local artist to scan, study and celebrate the Major Oak in a public exhibition (University of Nottingham)
- Book review: Art Meets Ecology (Peter Marren, British Wildlife)
- In ‘Of the Oak,’ a Magnificent Tree at Kew Gardens Gets an Immersive ‘Digital Double’ (Kate Mothes, Colossal)
- Cutting-edge tech guides nature restoration in the nation’s forests (Forestry England)
- Aerial land scanning; pictures worth a million words!
Plus Educational Resources:
