Linking art, forestry, and community building together, The Women Who Plant Trees is the outcome of Christalena Hughmanick’s 3-month research project at the Icelandic Forestry Association. It gives visibility to the women who have been (and still are) participating in the reforestation efforts led in Iceland since the 1930s, and documents how they engage daily with their forests.
The archival digital publication features conversations the artist had with women inside the forests of Eyjafjörður, Iceland’s largest tree nursery in Akureyri and those working at Skógræktarfélag Íslands.
The exhibition provides an immersive experience for viewers that reflects Hughmanick’s time spent in Icelandic forests. Works include field recordings of nature sounds, plant dyed textiles and printed photographs that were taken on a film camera the artist has been using for 23 years. All material was collected from the sites where the interviews took place, including foraged plants for the textile coloring process of natural dye.
The title of this exhibition references a text by French writer Jean Giono titled The Man Who Planted Trees. It is a 1953 short story about one shepherd’s long and successful single-handed effort to re-forest a desolate valley in France. This archival project highlights reforestation efforts led by women and activates forests as space for community building through creative acts that reconnect people to nature.