THE RED ASH PROJECT

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For over thirty years my life has been bound up with Ash trees - growing them from seed, planting them in new woodlands and making yurts, coracles, bowls, baskets and long bows from the wood. Along the way I have learned about our long association with the tree and the part it has played in our stories and culture.

The Ash woodland was planted twenty six years ago in a small field next to the River Camel in North Cornwall. It was intended to mark the new millenium and grow wood for making furniture, yurts, and other bits and pieces. In 2022, following the onset of Ash dieback disease, we thinned out the infected trees and instead of burning them as firewood decided to peel the bark and paint them red.

Since then we peeled and painted one hundred and three Ash poles and by the middle of May 2025,  had returned them to the woods to stand once again on the stumps where they once grew.

Before and After: fragments of origin

The exhibition in the Roland Levinsky Gallery in Plymouth in October 2026 is the first time the Red Sticks have been taken out of the woods and adapted for exhibition indoors in an urban space. Sixteen red ash poles have been relocated on fifteen blackened ‘stumps,’ within the gallery and although they are not as tall as the original installation bring a distinct presence to the space.

Why red?

Years ago, while visiting yurt makers in Kyrgyzstan, I was told that it was traditional to paint the yurt frames red, using earth pigment mixed with ox blood and water. The paint prevented termite attack but it was also a colour that in tribal culture represented fertility and other life giving properties.

Red is often used to signify danger or alarm, and I wanted something that provoked our attention in that way. It is also the colour associated with blood and with life and that sense of vitality was important. Some people who have already visited the woods see in the Red Poles a dance full of movement and joy, others have felt loss and sadness; there is no single interpretation and as the light changes throughout the day, so does the mood.

Initially I imagined the Red Poles standing surrounded by the greys, browns and purples of the woods in winter and the intense greenery of early summer has been a revelation. It is no accident that surgeons wear green scrubs in theatre, the colour green is soothing and brings calm and focus when seen beside the colour red.

Colours mean different things for each of us but I hope that the colour along with the shapes and arrangement of the trees remind us of something more than just their usefulness as a tool handle, or a log for the fire.

Elbows and Knees

In most instances it is not the whole tree that is standing, but a part of the tree - most often a forked branch but sometimes other parts have been selected. The tips of the branches have all been shaped to lean in to eachother and to face up towards the sun - there is a quality in these shapes and all the curves, the branched elbows and knees, and the upifted limbs, that shifts the work from a collection of painted sticks into something that perhaps evokes memories of joy and sadness that may lie just beneath the surface.

Participation