Coeden: Amidst the Trees - Upton Castle Gardens Summer 2024 Exhibition

Upton Castle

Cosheston,

Pembrokeshire

SA72 4SE

This year's Summer Exhibition, titled Coeden - meaning singular tree in Welsh, invites visitors to follow the sculpture trail through the trees of the Arboretum and Celtic Rainforest, where fungi, ferns and lichen flourish, discovering works of art placed amid the towering specimen trees. In the listed historic gardens that immediately surround the medieval Castle visitors will come across sculptures nestled in flowerbeds and on expansive lawns. A beautiful and inspiring backdrop to explore the entangled relationship between trees and humans, with each work offering the artist’s interpretation of the natural world.

In contemplative works across different media the 12 artists are featured to shine a light on the complicated relationship of trees and woodland and our own fate. As the destruction of the world’s forests accelerates with human interventions James Doran- Webb’s monumental sculptures made of decades old Malave driftwood, are an excellent example. This majestic tree was once prolific through Asia and is now an endangered species. As part of his re forestation project called ‘Eighty Thousand Trees’, a seedling is planted in the deforested areas of Cebu, Philippines for every kilo of driftwood collected from the shoreline and riverbeds.