Rooted in Place : Connected to Home

Rooted in Place : Connected to Home - National Trust - Upton House and Gardens - Artist Commission - Jan 2020 till May 2020

The 'Rooted in Place: Connected to Home' experience is a drawing together of several strands of story that exist at Upton House House and Gardens, a National Trust property, up on Edge Hill, Banbury UK. Exploring 'home' as an important connection between ourselves and the rest of the world, I have been investigating how 'home' can be a place of self-definition, and a place to belong - a basic human need. 

Planted around 1680, the cedar trees in the garden at Upton are a very special group of trees. They will have witnessed so much over their long and continuing lives. They are all interconnected and rooted in place, the very soil of Upton is their home.  

Peter Montefiore Samuel, 4th Viscount Bearsted, loved Upton House. He wrote with a heartfelt longing for home, referencing Upton many times, and of the people and gardens that he missed. In particular, he writes about the garden and cedar trees at Upton. I felt they must have symbolised the essence of home for him at this time. 'Rooted in Place: Connected to Home' is a response to the many homes that Upton has provided over Time.

This Immersive Installation of Uptons Cedar Trees Shares the light, Colours and Sounds of a summers day And Night. Arranged over a 12 minute cycle, these trees impart elements of what they have witnessed over their 340 years OF LIFE, Including of a young Peter Montefiore Samuel Lying in the long grass of summer beneath them. THE soundtrack for the installation is below.