Cloud Venus
FUTURE FOREST
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The Three Graces
Future Forest can be found at High Lodge, Thetford Forest. It will be open to the public until 30 May 2020. Admission is free.
Photo: The Forestry Commission
future will not be able to survive and prosper unless they are sustainably managed, and the responsibility for ensuring that this happens will be carried forward by future generations. In the one hundred years since the founding of the Forestry Commission after the First World War, the UK’s forests have grown and prospered. Today the Commission manages over 1,500 woodlands and forests spread over approximately 250,000 hectares. In recognition of this centenary milestone in the Forestry Commission’s history, Future Forest is both a celebration and a call to action, using drama and the age-old power of storytelling to instil within the public a desire to protect the forests of the future.
Photo: Parker Harris
Photo: The Forestry Commission
AS PART OF ITS CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS, THE FORESTRY COMMISSION has developed Future Forest, a dramatic sculptural installation designed by Artistic Director Tom Piper MBE. The installation features life-size sculptural figures created by internationally renowned artist Lisa Wright. The artists present the figures as custodians of the forest, tasked with protecting it for the benefit of future generations. They illustrate the vital role that trees and woodlands play in safeguarding the future of our planet, their youthful forms aligning them with the next generation whose role it must be to act as custodians of our forests. Tom Piper’s innovative approach to structure and space is well known from his most recent large-scale collaborative project, Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red at the Tower of London. For Future Forest, Tom is working in a forest environment for the first time. He has designed a series of structures inspired by the different forest landscapes that they sit within – a majestic avenue of Corsican Pine trees, a ghostly clearing and a view from the forest edge looking out onto a dramatic expanse of open land. Tom’s structures will be animated by the placement of Lisa’s figures within them. Lisa has made the figures using bio resins, a greener alternative to traditional plastics, which yield a smooth and durable finish. Taking the form of a host of well-known characters from the Classical canon, the figures embody the spirit of endurance. Though they are rooted in the past, they have survived into the present and doubtless will survive into the future too. Each individual element of this project is designed to raise awareness of the fact that resilient though they are, the forests of the
David and Daphne
Photo: The Forestry Commission
Marathon Boy
Photo: The Forestry Commission
THE FORESTRY COMMISSION unveils a major new sculptural installation at Suffolk’s THETFORD FOREST to celebrate 100 years of forestry
Forest Venus