Going out on a limb to create a digital forest

Hollow will be unveiled to the public on 9 May and will invite you to step inside a structure that is made of 10,000 unique samples of tree species, sourced from every country across the world, from fossilized trees from the earliest forests that emerged over 390 million years ago to the most recent emergent species.

Inside Katie Paterson’s Hollow

The launch of the artwork is accompanied by the Treebank project. During just 50 days from Thursday 27 April, the organisers hope to collect as many stories as possible. Record your living memory of trees, submit your story or illustrations and help build this digital forest for the future.

These might include descriptions of a particular place and time, a rare and ancient tree or a common, but personally significant tree.

An interactive time capsule that will preserve our living memory of trees offering a snapshot of the world’s biodiversity, told through your eyes. Get creative and help us to capture the world’s trees. Details of how to submit your story are here.

Explore the forest online and get involved at: www.buildtreebank.co.uk

The project is produced in association with the BBC. Creative design agency Extra Strong was commissioned by Situations to build Treebank.

The creation of Katie Paterson’s Hollow has been filmed for BBC Four's What Do Artists Do All Day? and will be broadcast on Saturday 7 May.

The samples of wood span time and space and have been sourced from across the globe. From the oldest tree in the world to some of the youngest and near-extinct species, the tree samples contain within them stories of the planet’s history and evolution through time.

Katie Paterson recalls: “Some samples are incredibly rare – fossils of unfathomable age, and fantastical trees such as Cedar of Lebanon, the Phoenix Palm, and the Methuselah tree thought to be one of the oldest trees in the world at 4,847 years of age, as well as a railroad tie taken from the Panama Canal Railway, which claimed the lives of between 5,000 to 10,000 workers over its 50 year construction and wood is salvaged from the remnants of the iconic Atlantic city boardwalk devastated by hurricane Sandy in 2012.”

Some samples are incredibly rare – fossils of unfathomable age, and fantastical trees such as Cedar of Lebanon, the Phoenix Palm, and the Methuselah tree

Katie Paterson

The artwork is commissioned to mark the opening of the University’s new Life Sciences building in the vicinity of the gardens and is produced by Situations.

The result of three years’ research and sourcing, the collection of tree species (one of the largest amassed in the UK to date) has been built through the generosity of arboretums, xylaria, herbaria and collectors world-wide.

Entomologist Dr George McGavin, made a BBC Four film about the life of an oak tree, Oak Tree: Nature's Greatest Survivor, and shared his passion for the humble oak: "I jumped at the opportunity to make a film about a 350-year-old oak tree in Wytham Woods because the oak, specifically the Common Oak (Quercus robur) is one of the best known trees in Britain and an icon of our countryside. Ships made from its timber helped us conquer the world and indelible ink made from oak galls allowed us to record 1000 years of our history. A keystone species, the oak provides food and shelter for many hundreds of other species. Standing under an ancient oak, its roots and branches linking the earth and the sky, it is hard not to think about the enormous changes that have taken place since it started growing and what might happen before it dies."