Film No. 35
Arboretum | 11' 47" | 2021
digital video, stereo, colour

An arboretum is a botanical collection exclusively made up of trees. I have accumulated many images of these woody plants over the last few years, and I wanted to create an arboretum of my own, celebrating the inherently cinematic, endless visual variations of trees. Primarily filmed in London, over the course of about eight years, in different aspect ratios, Arboretum is a tribute to trees. Locations in the film include: Hampstead Heath, Mountsfield Park, Hornsey Road, Camberwell, Bounds Green Road, the Rhodes Estate in Dalston, Derbyshire, Hither Green, Ruskin Park, Shoreditch, San Francisco, Clapham Common, Pembrokeshire, Epping Forest, Whitehall, Lechlade-on-Thames.

As the photographer Robert Adam's says: 'Trees smell good, feel good, sound good, and look good. And as if that weren't enough, they point beyond themselves.' Hopefully this film goes some ways to evoking some of that attitude.

Thanks to Andrew Lisle for the amazing, powerful and elegant drumming.