Summer Art Nights, St Andrews Botanic Garden: what to see with  ‘All The Trees’

It showcases Studio Lemercier’s ‘All The Trees’ as part of ‘Summer Art Nights’‘ as part of the initiative which runs until August 10. Ticket details on the garden’s Facebook page

It marks the Scottish debut of Studio Lemercier which is co-directed by independent curator, Juliette Bibasse and visual artist and climate activist, Joanie Lemercier, and aims to take audiences on a journey of contemplation and a new perspective on the world around us during the ecological crisis we currently face.

‘All the Trees’ re-enchants our senses and encourages us to look at trees in a different light, unveiling details that may usually go unnoticed. By illuminating a section of trees or a single tree in the garden, the artists transcend conventional exhibition spaces.

And as the outdoors transforms into a realm that brings together nature and culture, the installation reinspires a sense of awe, appreciation and care. Each tree highlighted within the exhibition plays an important part in the story of the garden.

Harry Watkins, St Andrews Botanic Garden executive director, said: “The garden is at a point of change, shifting our focus to working at the intersection of design, ecology and evolution.

“More than ever we need fresh perspectives on plants and how they respond to new conditions, how they shape landscapes and people.“Working with Studio Lemercier poses fascinating questions and challenges for us about how we might develop the Botanic Garden and our conservation research in a way that goes beyond sustainability. Most importantly, their residency is a conversation: as artists, they not only ask difficult questions but help us to imagine different answers to these questions and possible futures for our plants, society and environment.”He said their residency had already prompted profound emotional responses to the trees, new ideas about what it means to be resilient, how they might curate the Botanic Garden.

“It’s exciting to see their work develop during the residency and to see new works and ways of working being prototyped: we are seeing the Garden afresh through their drawings and installations,” he added.

Each weekend, Studio Lemercier will be showing new and existing work across different mediums including light installations, a video work and plotter drawings corresponding to the garden's approach to reframing our perspective on the natural world.

Tickets still available for ‘A Thousand Visions Escape’ on the10th when Juliette and Joanie will showcase new work which has been developed during their time in the garden and reflect on the Garden's ecology and possible climate futures. For this, Studio Lemercier used a plotting machine capable of producing drawings based on various imaginary plants. They were generated with a database and AI, as well as a set of specific variables which the artist questions at the same time.

Studio Lemercier will be joined by Dr Brenda Parker, co-founder of Studio Biocene, a design collective uniquely founded by a biochemical engineer and an architect rooted in practice and academia. By bringing together the realms of art, design and biochemical engineering, they will explore interdisciplinary perspectives on the interactions of light, water, computation and organic matter. At the heart of this conversation is the question of how we might imagine our futures and move beyond the Anthropocene.

> Prairie - Friday, August, 2 (8.00pm-10.30pm): This event invites audiences into a visual meditation of nature and light art, the organic and the digital. Oftentimes, those terms are thought to be dichotomies as they are framed as separate, or even oppositional realms. By illuminating live plants, the installation culminates in an enchanting experience that explores new imaginaries and perspectives on nature and art.

> Nature, Art & Light - A Creative Writing Workshop with Roxani Krystalli - Saturday, August 3 (1:00-3:00pm, £20): This two-hour writing workshop will invite participants to engage with the St Andrews Botanic Garden through the senses and through encounters with art, beauty, flourishing, light, and loss. The workshop will include prompts for reflection and writing, opportunities to share with other participants, close reading of key nature writing texts to inspire future writing, and questions to take home for further development