Sarah Poland

Ash – Dancer In The Wind

Onnen -

The Ash project started in late 2016 when I became visually aware of the devastating  effect of ash dieback on our native ash trees in Wales. Common Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) is found across Europe, from the Arctic Circle to Turkey. It makes up one sixth of our main hedgerow trees; losing them will affect our landscape dramatically.

The fungal pathogen Hymenoscyphus fraxineus affects the trees vascular system and thereby affects the trees ability to draw up nutrients. This causes a chronic disease which is characterised by leaf loss, dieback of the crown, lesions in the wood and the leaves can take on a frazzled look. It has spread throughout Europe and threatens to kill off all ash. Saplings are the most vulnerable and succumb quickly, whereas older trees can survive initial attacks but weakened are slowly die after several seasons of infection due to prolonged exposure or infection from another pathogen. The Woodland Trust explain how long we have been aware of the problem, ‘This disease was first described in Poland in 1992 and has since swept westwards throughout Europe. It was first identified in Britain in 2012 in nursery stock then in the wider environment in 2013 although it could have been in the country much longer.’ The Forestry Commission tell us that ‘Ash can grow in a variety of soils and climatic conditions. It is one of our most useful and versatile native tree species, providing valuable habitat for a wide range of dependent species as well as strong, durable, flexible and attractive timber with a wide range of practical and decorative uses.’ It also makes it an ideal fuel, as is reflected in its Latin species name Fraxinus meaning firelight.Ash is an important tree culturally and ecologically. Gwydion fab Dôn, a character from the tales of the Welsh Mabinogion, master of magic and poetry, had his wand of enchantment made from ash. Ash is said to have powers of healing and especially transformation and empowerment in matters of destiny. Gwydion also appears in the medieval Welsh poem Cad Goddeu (The Battle of the Trees), where he animates the trees of the forest to fight as his army.  The poem which refers to a traditional story is preserved in the 14th-century manuscript known as the Book of Taliesin. The bard Taliesin lived towards the end of the 6th century.

The Welsh countryside is home to many ash. The Ash project began when I started regularly drawing a particular ash tree from my studio window in West Wales, watching and documenting it. Now in the third year of the project, it is clear that the tree is succumbing. In this project I use varous materials; oil paint, charcoal, mixed media and oak gall ink all on various supports. About 8 years ago, I lived in an ancient oak woodland in West Wales for five years. I was making drawings and paintings, and noticing that this woodland was a totally immersive experience and incredible opportunity. A chance conversation led me to investigate oak gall ink and how to make this very luxurious, sensual and expensive ink - ink of Kings, poets and monks. I wanted to make work more ‘of the woodland’, and explored the process and chemistry of making the ink, creating different consistencies (some thick and gunky I call oak rust)and developed my own technique of making and using it.

With this project I want to make work which has both ecological and polemical motivation, as well as meditational and transformational, by documenting and bringing awareness to the plight of Wales’ important native tree. I like to call ash the ‘dancing tree’, it’s boughs upturned at the ends, swaying and moving with the wind. These kinds of observations help to inform my practice which is not just about visual representation but also about a process of transformation – of experience, self and material. For me, painting is as much about the materiality of paint as the the act of painting and drawing - where the physical act of making work is, in part, an ontological process. In as much as this project is about an awareness of the decline of the ash tree, it is also about the spirit of it, ‘the dancer in the wind’.