Rights of a Tree banner

‘Rights of A Tree’ machine and hand stitched from linen, barkcloth, vintage textile, wood. Made for a selected show Flow State at Make South West. My banner references early trade union banners and William Morris thinking around workers rights and craft, engaging the senses through the handmade.

My banner provides the rallying point for activism supporting rights of nature, whether a forest, a river or other of Earth's living entities. This Rights of a Tree banner is made from textile and bark cloth - a ceremonial cloth used in ritual for births, initiation, marriage and death, parrallel to those rites of passage happening in the natural world; insects pupate,birds hstch, fledglings fledge, plants grow, fungi form, and fruit and nuts ripen and sustain. Tree's shade cools Earth's human and more than human inhabitants, ever more imporntant in a warming world.

Rights and activism have formed the basis of democratic society, and the banners raised for community and solidarity of working identity are part of a ritual of affirmation strengthening feelings of belonging