FOREST - A Token of Gentle Activism

Lizzie Rose, Artist 

Carbon Legacy & FOREST at Kilmartin Museum, Kilmartin

Open Wednesday to Sunday 11am – 4pm 

Access to the exhibitions is included in a museum ticket

FOREST is an immersive exhibition of 375 oak gall ink drawings, filling an entire room floor to ceiling. It is a gathering - a bringing together of people and trees through the collective process and ritual of drawing: each tree being drawn by a different person. 

These 375 young oak trees are part of Carbon Legacy, Rose’s installation commissioned for the re-opening of Kilmartin Museum in 2023 and running until the end of 2024. The trees are to be planted in Mid-Argyll as a restorative action, reflecting on our ancestor’s removal of 375 oak trees to make a monument c.5,500 years ago. Carbon Legacy poses questions about how collective action has changed our surroundings, our relationship with the land and the landscape we inhabit now, reflecting on ideas of monumentality, ancestorship and time. Can we choose to create alternative monuments and become good ancestors? 

Carbon Legacy responds to the first known monument in a glen that resonates with our ancestors’ footprints, to a monument consumed in fire and the inherited landscape interventions that this heralded. In Carbon Legacy Lizzie Rose reflects on how this prehistoric statement of intent and power resonates with contemporary issues of deforestation, combustion, climate and biodiversity crises, leaving us a literal carbon footprint and an urgent summons to reflect and change. 

Within the context of Carbon Legacy, FOREST has created a way for these trees to be witnessed and honoured before they are planted - creating connection, inclusion and hope. These young oak trees are symbols of positive action. They are a gift to the future, a token of gentle activism, and a reminder of the impact of our actions over long time. 

Planting these trees is a sign of intention, a monument and reminder of forests long gone, those surviving, and future forests hoped for. FOREST celebrates our human connection with trees, honouring our local oak trees and our remnant Atlantic Rainforest. 

Kilmartin Museum, Kilmartin, PA31 8RQ,