The REDreadTREE & Postmodern Reinvention

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE

In postmodernism and 'art' everything is quotable and open to appropriation. Art about art throws up all kinds of difficulties but here we have The Red Tree – actually its the REDreadTREE – characterised as, reinvented as, a symbol of "renewal" – "I've been using the red tree for quite a number of years - it is really about renewal and change'' Many Hunniford, Examiner March 2 2012.

Actually, this Landcare Landmark aimed to draw attention to degradation and the unexplained phenomena of 'Rural Tree Decline' in Tasmania's Midlands. It also set out to promote the concept of LANDliteracy that was in the mid 1990s gaining some currency. Interestingly, in the Decade of Landcare there was a net loss of tree cover in Tasmania's Midlands despite the planting of thousands upon thousands of trees in an attempt to turn back Rural Tree Decline.

Any claim that this installation was about anything more than the hope for renewal is folly and yet more smoothed over history – something akin climate change denial. The REDread TREE did however win the attention of a researcher who ultimately told the unhappy story of the Midlands' degradation and over exploitation.

The degradation continues and GOOGLEearth tells us that the exploitation grows apace. What the future holds is an open question but "renewal" hardly seems likely but there you go. Nonetheless, “the tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goals to reach.” ~ Benjamin Mays

To see REDread TREE Press CLICK HERE

To see T-R-E-EreadRED Landcare Story CLICK HERE

THIS STORY'S SOURCE ONLINE: http://www.examiner.com.au/news/local/news/general/historic-coach-house-reinvented-as-gallery/2474434.aspx

The REDreadTREE: Ruth Tomteron Circa 1996

Jill Waldron has provided this image and the context for it. At the time it was taken Jill was the co-owner of the Hazelwood’s Shop – Tunbridge’s general store at the time. Ruth Tomteron called into the shop to enquire about who she should see about getting permission to go onto the land to take some photographs of the tree. She later called in to the shop and gave Jill this image.

Red tree (and other fires) article_ ART MONTHLY

CLICK ON AN IMAGE TO ENLARGE
David Hansen, "Better read than dead" (The Brown Column),
Art Monthly, no. 99, May, 1997

RED TREE PRESS SEARCH

Click on the image above to go to a survey of the press
the REDreadTREE & TREEreadRED site has received

RED TREE PHOTOcall

The LANDliteracy Network is now looking for the photographs people have taken of the REDreadTREE & TREEreadRED side at Woodbury on the Midlands Highway between Launceston and Hobart in Tasmania.

Photograph: Ray Arnold

The Network is aware that many people have taken a great many photographs at different times since May 1996 when one dead tree became an ecoLANDMARK. In collecting these photographs it is hoped that new insights into how this site has been imagined may emerge.

Photographer: Unknown

The addresses that people need to send their images to are:

eMail Address
theredtree@7250.net

Postal Addresss
THE RED TREE NETWORK
Woodbury House
7849 Midland Hwy

Woodbury TAS 7120

Only COPIES should be sent as the Network does not have a budget for return postage. It doesn’t matter what form the copy is in – digital, print, photocopy, whatever. In addition to the image the Network would appreciate anything that people can remember about the day they took their photograph and any other observations they may have made. And of course we need people's names and their permission to publish their image on this site.

LINK: A Tourist Shoots TREEreadRED

A MIDLANDS VIEW

The LANDliteracy Network is seeking images of Tasmania's Midlands. The Network is exploring the idea of 'cultural landscapes' [another link] and Tasmania's Midlands is example of the ways cultural dynamics have shaped and are continuing to reshape a landscape. Thank you Mal for your images!

Click on the image to enlarge
LINK:Click here to see more of Mal's Midland's landscapes
The addresses that people need to send their images to are:

eMail Address
theredtree@7250.net

Postal Addresss
THE RED TREE NETWORK
Woodbury House
7849 Midland Hwy

Woodbury TAS 7120

Only COPIES should be sent as the Network does not have a budget for return postage. It doesn’t matter what form the copy is in – digital, print, photocopy, whatever. In addition to the image the Network would appreciate anything that people can remember about the day they took their photograph and any other observations they may have made. And of course we need people's names and their permission to publish their image on this site.

THE MIDLANDS: A Cultural Landscape

Tasmania's Midlands once were famous for the production of fine wool. That too was the case for Woodbury Farm the site of TREEreadRED. Sheep grazing in particular has dramatically changed the Midlands landscape and 200 years of European settlement in Tasmania has produced a cultural landscape that barely resembles the landscape managed by Tasmania's Aboriginal people.

The REDreadTREE came about as a result of a confluence of ideas. The Landcare organisation was seeking a means to draw attention to 'Rural Tree Decline' in the Midlands. Coinciding with this a group of artists were looking for opportunities to install 'ecoLANDMARKS' along the Midlands Highway. The REDreadTREE was to be the precursor for that and simultaneously serve a Landcare purpose.

The timing was the 5th year of the 'Decade of Landcare' and the REDreadTREE project had been proceeded (and followed) by significant tree plantings primarily designed to abate Rural Tree Decline. There was an enormous community effort to replace trees in the midlands landscape.

Sadly, almost a decade on from the end of the Decade of Landcare anicdotal evidence in the Midlands suggests that much less that 5% of those plantings survived. On top of that, during the Decade of Landcare in the Midlands it was estimated that there was an enormous loss of tree cove – there are suggestions of 25%. This is born out by the Midlands GOOGLEearth images here.

The Midlands is without doubt a cultural landscape that is not too difficult to interpret. As a consiquence of land use practices and sucessive droughts the proposition that the landscape is desertifying is plausible on the visual evidence.

LAYERED OWNERSHIPS & INTERESTS

Thinking about the community of owners and interested people represented in this site and Tasmania's Midlands landscape is an interesting proposition. The boundary fence above is as poignant a 'symbol' as the word 'tree.' The electrification signage is equally so. There is as much to be 'read' in the fence as there may be in the word.

And then there is the individual, corporate, organisational and institutional 'branding and badging' announcing a range of interests – and ownerships and thus rights of various kinds. In amongst that there is 'government' at all levels declaring its interests. None of this is all that subtle. Nonetheless there are subliminal 'soul mates' matching those announced – bankers and financiers being among them.

At a more subtle level there is something to be read in the species selection in this experimental 'planting'. Environment managers, land managers, foresters of various kinds, researchers of various kinds, names just some who have something 'invested' in the selection'. In the Tasmanian Midlands especially a range of tensions can be found in their various interests.

In amongst the ecucalypts there are two odd trees out that were left over from – survived rather – from the year 2000 planting – and left in 2002 when almost all the other trees were planted. They symbolise another group of people with something invested in this site and landscape. After that there are others who use the site as various kinds of landmarks and who have a myriad of stories to tell linked to the site. It is impossible to rank their various 'interests and ownerships' or even know them all. But with these interests come rights and obligations. Some are more onerous than others but all are assessed more subjectively than objectively. Indeed, some individuals may have conflicting benefits and duties symbolised in this site.

In the end the REDreadTREE and TREEreadRED sit in a post-colonial cultural landscape. There are cultural tensions in all this.

Californians Shoot TREEreadRED

Click here to go to source

TREEreadRED: Site 2000 After The Olympic Landcare Planting

1990-2000 Decade of Landcare:"Tasmanian landcarers paint a dead tree sited on the highway between Hobart and Launceston red, to highlight the issue of tree decline [1996]. The image captures the imagination of many people and becomes the inspiration of the red tree campaign of 1997 and the gold tree campaign associated with Olympic Landcare in 1998-2000. LINK "

To mark the end of the "Decade of Landcare" and associated with the "Olympic Landcare Gold Tree Campaign" TREEreadRED was moved from its original site where the REDreadTREE stood. In 2000 it was moved to the forfront of a fenced off site where several hundred trees and understory plants were planted.

TREEreadRED had won the unwelcomed attention of some the 'Midlands Wags' who had taken to visiting the site late at night in their 4x4s and climbing "the tree" off the bonnet. On leaving they occasionally nudged a letter or two. – OH BUGGER! – remember that Toyota advertisement. So, TREEreadRED started to look a bit disheveled from time to time.

The long and short of it was that the new landowner couldn't take the risk of someone being hurt and suing him – even if they were there and up to no good. So TREEreadRED was moved and the rest is now history. Sadly the planting at that time failed and only 2 trees have survived.

Interestingly 'The Understory Network' supplied plants and planters for this planting in cooperation with Landcare and other community members. And, just as interestingly there is currently a paucity of understory plants on the site today.

More on the TREEreadRED Planting: HERE

MAPPING TREE DECLINE IN TASMANIA

Somewhat ironically the mapping of 'land alienation' in Tasmania since European settlement simultaneously maps the decline in Tasmania's tree cover. There is no surprises there and since this particular set of maps were produced in 1945 the issue has grown.

So called 'Rural Tree Decline' (RTD) is but a part of the problem. The REDreadTREE Project was primarily to do with drawing attention to RTD and hopefully also draw attention to the need to do some research into the factors impacting upon trees in Tasmania's Midlands.

The issues are at once complex and simple. RTD is somewhat like the canary down the coal mine. It is telling us something! Since the REDreadTREE was painted in 1996 the problem has increased rather than being abated by massive Landcare tree planting projects.

Yes, there have been some success stories, and some research, and successive droughts too but more than anything else, land use practices continue to exacerbate the problem.

The question still remains. And then there is "Climate Change". Where to from here?