Memorial to Arcadia Woodlands Clear-Cut

Abstract

In a world where <30% of the Earth’s surface is land, competition for this limited but precious resource is fierce. To serve many basic living needs for a growing population, land has been converted into multiple uses, from farmland and properties to dumpsites, but often at the cost of deforestation. Andrea Bowers, a Los Angeles-based artist, commemorates a tree-siting protest via the hanging sculpture Memorial to Arcadia Woodlands Clear-Cut. In an attempt to save the clearing of a pristine grove of majestic oaks and sycamores in Arcadia for the sake of creating a sediment dump, Bowers and three other activists tied themselves to two treetops. At 100 ft above the ground, they witnessed the devastating clearance. After their release from a 2-day imprisonment, Bowers revisited the site and retrieved the legacy: a mountain of chippings. Together with ropes and other tree-sitting gear, Bowers forms the aftermath as a monument to the 250 cleared trees and their habitat.