Fallen Trees addresses nature's ability to survive and adapt to new environments, drawing attention to our own bodies as being nothing more than endlessly convertible matter that belongs to a limitless cycle of life.
In 1987 a night of hurricane force winds reduced much of the south east of England to a region strewn with debris and uprooted trees. The storm was notable not only for its sheer power and strength but also for the almost hysterical reaction to the devastation of one of the tidiest regions in Britain. 'Our Darkest Hour' was the headline in the Sevenoaks Chronicle as six of its seven symbolic oaks had fallen in the storm. The story made the national news and became the emblem of a region that considered much of its heritage to have been destroyed. In the aftermath there was a sense that the landscape would forever be scarred by the memory of the storm and that nature would never fully recover.
In Fallen Trees I have photographed the roots of trees felled by this storm. Covered in a vibrant green moss the uprooted trees appear like biotopes, like exotic islands that calmly float above the ground in darkness. Physical matter that was once considered deceased now appears indestructible and entirely transmutable. - Neil Shirreff