Peter Mcilwain - Lung Trees

“very beautiful” “brilliant” “powerful” “moving”

Lung Trees is a sound installation of breathing trees that invites the audience to listen creatively, bringing our attention to the elemental nature of the breath and the carbon cycle and connecting the personal and global experience of life.

We know climate change is real but we can’t feel it. Has it been too front of mind for too long? Or maybe there’s too much noise? Is it too much electronic virtual dreaming and we’re disconnected from our bodies and each other and nature? Or maybe we’ve become the rabbit in the headlights? Lung Trees is a sound installation of breathing trees that bypasses the didactic and gives instead the experiential. Maybe it would be easier to connect if you could hear the trees breathe in the CO2 from our lungs and our machines and breathe out the air we need to live.

Conservatory Adelaide

Alfred Nicholas site 1

photo by Cathy Ronalds

Sound installations are site specific works that reference the spatial and acoustic qualities of the space in which they are presented. In Lung Trees separate sounds are positioned in the space in order to create an immersive sound experience. Trees and vegetation in the site disperse the sound so that there is an interaction between the sound and the site. In much of Mcilwain’s work, a recognizable sound is presented in an unusual context inviting the audience to listen creatively, making connections to associations that the sound might have. In this case the elemental nature of breathing and the carbon cycle is connected to both the personal and global experience of life.

This project is proudly supported by: Yarra Ranges Council Sustainability, ngurrak barring (RidgeWalk) and Yarra Ranges Regional Museum, Nature Festival SA, the City of Adelaide and the Adelaide Botanic Gardens