Artist Luke Jerram on a tree planting project he will never see completed | art

Luke Jerram, whose art installations have traveled the world, speaks philosophically about his latest project coming to fruition after his time on Earth.

Known for his Play Me I’m Yours street piano project and his artwork at the Museum of the Moon – a seven-metre-diameter moon sculpture displaying detailed NASA photographs of the lunar surface – Jerram is now working on Echo Wood, a living, breathing installation made from native British trees.

Planted this winter in the Chew Valley in Somerset, in collaboration with the charity Avon Needs Trees, the 365 trees – apple, hawthorn and oak – will slowly grow into a vast design 110 meters wide, and will take a century to fully emerge, long after Jerram is gone.

“In 50 to 100 years, I won’t be here,” says Jerram, 50, next to a scale model of the project in his studio in Bristol. “I’m at a point in my career where I’m starting to look forward, and I’m not looking back.

“I’m 50, it’s probably a mid-life crisis. I have up to 900 exhibitions now. Forty countries around the world and the artwork is in about 80 museums. So suddenly you start thinking about heritage projects and the fact that I can’t keep these energy levels up.”

“I think there’s something very nice about envisioning yourself for the future, which is very exciting.”

The living statue will form part of the Lower Shaw Forest, which has 422 acres and 100,000 trees and will be one of the largest new forests in England when completed.

Paths and paths, which bloom at different times of the year, will be created to guide visitors to Echo Wood on a journey through the forest towards a central circular gathering space, made up of 12 English Oak trees.

As with many of his projects, Jerram wants this central space to foster creativity. “It will be an event space,” he says. “It could be used for weddings, educational activities, music, poetry, or anything else.”

Jerram’s other works, which often address themes of nature and the climate emergency, include: Gaia, a seven-metre-diameter Earth sculpture using NASA images; Helios, a statue of the sun that uses detailed solar images to recreate its surface; and Turning Point, a forest fire simulation that combines smoke, lights and sound.

Echo Wood is perhaps the closest representation of these themes, a symbol of the fight against climate change. “This is a way to actually do something about it,” says Jerram. “Use creativity to inspire the general public, but also to help use trees to raise a little money and create a legacy.” “What art can do is communicate messages in a different language that can then reach people in a slightly different way.

“I often collaborate with scientists, but also with charities on how to communicate their ideas.”

Despite the lack of progress in tackling the climate crisis, Jerram says he is “perpetually optimistic” although he finds “breaking through tipping points” scary.

“There’s a lovely comic illustration of a doctor with a slightly ill-looking Earth in front of him in the doctor’s chair,” Jerram says. “The Earth says: ‘I’m afraid we have a bad infection among humans right now.’ The doctor says: ‘Don’t worry, the disease will pass soon.’”

“We are just the latest invasive species.”

The wood from his latest artwork will eventually be sustainably harvested and used in educational and creative projects, before the trees are replanted to continue the life cycle.

“I like the idea of ​​what you can do with wood — turn oak into playground equipment for schools in the city, or create a boat, or musical instruments for kids in the city,” Jerram says.

Businesses and individuals can sponsor individual trees to raise money for Avon Needs Trees, which has a number of tree planting projects across the region.

“Situated in the heart of a brand new forest, Echo Wood is a symbol of optimism for us and for generations to come, that with some thought, creativity and determination we can confront the climate and nature crises we face,” says Dave Wood, CEO of Avon Needs Trees. “It is not a message in a bottle, but a message in wood, water and sunlight.

“We want as many people as possible to think about innovative ways to address the climate and nature crises we face. By working with Luke, we are able to engage a whole new group of people who might not otherwise make the trip to the countryside to see the work we are doing to increase forest cover in a heavily deforested part of the country.”