Shieldfield Art Works, 2021
From 2020-21 Newcastle City Council’s parks management company undertook the felling of trees across the city. Some were deemed dangerous, too close to roads or paths and too expensive to manage, others were diseased with great holes in the centres of them. The argument presented by the management company was that every tree cut down would be replaced. Yet this fails to acknowledge the meaning particular trees hold for local people, and the role they play in local ecosystems.
Heslop has documented many trees that have been felled, some of which have been translated into a series of screenprints which were exhibited at Shiledfield Art Works in 2021. The screenprints exhibited on the outside of the gallery are a series of rubbings from felled cherry and plum trees. They were cut down in order to make way for a new Lidl development which didn’t end up happening for a number of years following this. These trees were well-loved by local residents but were felled just as they were about to blossom. One resident collected the branches and handed them out around the community. In documenting trees cut down explicitly to make way for new development the work questions what is lost through the capture of economic value from land.
