Two temporarily sited artworks by leading contemporary artists Ivan Morison and Heather Peak were unveiled on 19 August in Bristol. Overstory, a pair of site-specific suspended structures featuring microscopic imagery of trees, will hang above Broadmead highlighting the importance of urban tree cover.

Overstory gives a view into the microscopic world of trees and asks visitors to celebrate and consider how they are folded into our lives through their presence around us, their functions within our shared ecosystems, the stories they tell, and the role we can all play in creating and protecting natural spaces in our cities.

The artwork has been produced and curated by PONY, and commissioned with The Natural History Consortium, being delivered as one of the activities under the City Centre and High Streets Recovery and Renewal programme, funded by Bristol City Council and the West of England Combined Authority’s Love our High Streets project. Ivan Morison and Heather Peak’s previous works in Bristol include Black Cloud in 2009 and I lost her near Fantasy Island. Life has not been the Same in 2006.

Trees have underscored the artists’ practice for over 20 years, and the artwork’s title is inspired by the 2019 Pulitzer Prize Winning novel by ecological author Richard Powers; focusing on the deep importance of trees and the fight to preserve them. Although a work of fiction, the book delves into the science of trees and the realities of their endangered existence.

Overstory encourages the public to look consciously at the trees around them, they may be surprised by what they see, and are naturally drawn towards. Visitors to Broadmead can learn how to create, protect, and explore woodlands and forests in the region; and are encouraged to venture outside this summer and discover the local parks, wildlife reserves, and older neighbourhoods to experience the diversity of native trees around Bristol and the stories they tell about the City.