Shadow Forests – An Exhibition by Angela Gilmour & Beth Jones
Dates: March 16th – 23rd April
Shadow Forests is a multi-media, immersive installation focusing on the intersections of deep time, climate change, and the expansive life and death of forests. This exhibition focuses on representing four ancient forests, utilising the artists’ field research and that of supporting scientists in four locations: the 385-million-year-old Cairo and Gilboa fossil forests of New York are the oldest in the world, followed closely by the ancient, fossilised tropical forests of Svalbard, High Arctic. The Gearagh in Cork is a 9,000-year-old submerged glacial woodland, flooded in 1954 to support a hydroelectric dam.
These forests are gone, leaving shadowy traces of what they once were. The artists capture their shadows and provide an introduction to the science behind their demise and their historic impact on the planet’s carbon.
About the Artists
Angela Gilmour is a visual artist based in Cork. Originally from Scotland and formerly a practising physicist, her interests and artistic practice now surround the urgency of climate change, land consumption, sustainability and the political and environmental impact of land and sea borders. She explores landscapes that have suffered trauma in recent or deep geological time. She has received numerous awards and residencies including the prestigious Arctic Circle Residency where she met collaborating artist and writer Beth Jones.
Beth Jones is an American author, digital storyteller and educator based in Boston. She has written for the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and co-authored an award-winning memoir. Jones’ digital stories explore human engagement with extreme situations and environments including the climate crisis and trauma. She has visited the oldest fossilised forest on Earth several times.