Into the woods Internationally renowned British artist Gayle Chong Kwan currently has a monolithic 11-metre high sculptural installation, The Fairlop Oak in the Barbican foyer until 18 March. This month sees her new exhibition, The People’s Forest, the culmination of a two year complementary project open at the William Morris Gallery. Here she talks to Paul Lindt. Leytonstone resident Gayle Chong Kwan is well known for her photography, installations and public realm works which explore the simulacra and the sublime through immersive environments, ritual experiences and sensory activities. The People’s Forest, an exhibition of new photographic and sculptural work, explores the history, politics, and people of London’s ancient woodland, Epping Forest and is the culmination of a two year exploration of the forest. I asked Gayle what she had discovered about the role the forest plays in the lives of the people who live alongside it?
Photo © Maxine Kirsty Sapsford
“I was drawn by the politics of the forest, both in terms of its history with the attempted enclosures and the Epping Forest Act of 1878, but also as a site of more recent protests against the building of the M11 Link Road in the 1990s.
Sophie, from the Forest Portraits series for The Peoples Forest by Gayle Chong Kwan, 2018
“I was really struck by the liminal nature of the forest, as a place between rural and urban, and as a site of imagination, myths, and possibilities.” Portrait of Gayle Ching Kwan in Epping Forest for The Peoples Forest, by Parisa Taghizadeh, 2017
Epping Forest is an ancient forest, with over 3,000 years of continuous tree covering, and is a remnant of the once extensive Essex Forest. In medieval times Forest Law was introduced to safeguard the king’s hunting rights, but which included commoner’s rights to collect wood and graze livestock. It was the local loppers and grazers, the City of London Corporation who counted as a commoner too through owning the cemetery in Aldersbrook and the Commons Preservation Society that To advertise your business contact ads@theelist.co.uk 9