0:00:28 > 0:00:31OK, so I think this is it. Erm...
0:00:33 > 0:00:34..the tallest tree in the UK.
0:00:39 > 0:00:42Straight and very tall, the grand fir.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45It's, erm, 63 metres high.
0:00:47 > 0:00:53So the label has charted the height of the tree since 1931,
0:00:53 > 0:00:55where it was 100 foot.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58By 1985, 202 feet,
0:00:58 > 0:01:01and, erm, at the moment, it is...
0:01:01 > 0:01:04It was one of the tallest trees in Britain
0:01:04 > 0:01:06because it reached over 60 metres.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09They don't prune it very often
0:01:09 > 0:01:11so we're also very lucky that we're...
0:01:11 > 0:01:14that they've cut a piece for us, and, er, so, yeah,
0:01:14 > 0:01:18so we have a piece of this magnificent tree for the artwork.
0:01:49 > 0:01:53I wanted to gather together every single tree species on the planet,
0:01:53 > 0:01:57without really knowing at that point how many there were.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38So, this arboretum, they've donated us...
0:02:38 > 0:02:42erm, samples, offcuts from their champion trees.
0:02:42 > 0:02:47Erm, the grand fir, which is one of the tallest in the UK,
0:02:47 > 0:02:51and, ah, here it is, this is the mightiest conifer in Europe.
0:02:51 > 0:02:53Wow, it is enormous.
0:02:54 > 0:02:55Beautiful.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01So, I think, to become a champion tree, the tree has to be either
0:03:01 > 0:03:05one of the tallest or one of the widest, erm, trees,
0:03:05 > 0:03:09and so I think this tree actually takes seven people,
0:03:09 > 0:03:11arm-in-arm, to fit around it, so it's...
0:03:11 > 0:03:14Yeah, as you can see, it's pretty enormous.
0:03:17 > 0:03:20So, actually, the piece that we'll have in the artwork is...
0:03:20 > 0:03:22It's going to be from this mighty tree,
0:03:22 > 0:03:26but actually we'll end up with a kind of hand-held piece inside.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34Yeah, that would make a good tree for a treehouse.
0:03:35 > 0:03:37Hmm...
0:03:37 > 0:03:39SHE MUTTERS
0:03:39 > 0:03:45So, basically, I'm going to just label these bits of wood
0:03:45 > 0:03:49so that they don't get lost within our other 4,400 pieces,
0:03:49 > 0:03:53and I definitely don't want to lose the mightiest conifer in Europe.
0:03:55 > 0:03:57Let's see if this sticks on.
0:03:59 > 0:04:01Yeah, that should be fine.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05And then when we get them back to the studio they'll be
0:04:05 > 0:04:09numbered properly and entered into our archive.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15Yeah, I'm really glad we've got the tallest tree as well
0:04:15 > 0:04:19because it doesn't often get pruned, but it's very nice to hold
0:04:19 > 0:04:24this piece of branch knowing that it's come from the tallest tree.
0:04:27 > 0:04:29Hollow began a few years ago now.
0:04:29 > 0:04:33It's a commission for the University of Bristol Life Sciences building,
0:04:33 > 0:04:36and it's a sculpture
0:04:36 > 0:04:39but it's also a piece of architecture that people can enter.
0:04:39 > 0:04:45Hollow's probably the most ambitious work that I've tried to do so far.
0:04:45 > 0:04:49It begun as a very simple idea but it's kind of spiralled
0:04:49 > 0:04:51and kind of become bigger and bigger.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37So this is our wood studio in Bristol, er,
0:05:37 > 0:05:42where we've been storing our 4,400 pieces of wood.
0:05:42 > 0:05:47That's where we're at at the moment, we've got another 5,500 to arrive.
0:05:47 > 0:05:50Erm, so it's in the centre of Bristol,
0:05:50 > 0:05:52the artwork's being created quite close to here,
0:05:52 > 0:05:56at the university, so it's been used both as a storage room,
0:05:56 > 0:05:59literally, for all the wood, but it's also the place that we've
0:05:59 > 0:06:05been archiving and cataloguing every single piece of wood that's come in.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08It's absolutely random in terms of
0:06:08 > 0:06:11how the numbers all fit together,
0:06:11 > 0:06:16because it's just been archived in terms of how all the wood's arrived
0:06:16 > 0:06:18to us in the studio, erm,
0:06:18 > 0:06:22but we do know exactly what every single piece of wood is,
0:06:22 > 0:06:25so we've got a lot of wood that is the standard
0:06:25 > 0:06:28International Wood Collectors dimension.
0:06:28 > 0:06:32Erm, I think about 80 or 90% of our whole collection's going to be
0:06:32 > 0:06:33made of wood this size
0:06:33 > 0:06:36because there's a whole community of wood
0:06:36 > 0:06:39collectors all over the world that we've acquired
0:06:39 > 0:06:42a lot of our wood from, and then, as you can see there, we've got
0:06:42 > 0:06:46huge pieces that are from arboretums or that have been gifted to us
0:06:46 > 0:06:49from botanical gardens all over the world.
0:06:49 > 0:06:52Some of them are still to be kiln-dried and cut.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57So many of the wood has been donated, so, for example,
0:06:57 > 0:07:04this whole section here, erm, I think is our African donation.
0:07:04 > 0:07:09We had 600 species donated from Africa, erm,
0:07:09 > 0:07:12and we've had a huge Mexican donation as well.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15In fact, the Mexican donation is made up of all these
0:07:15 > 0:07:19beautiful twigs, erm, which, remarkably, have all...
0:07:19 > 0:07:23You know, they were all numbered, and they're all a different species.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27The idea was to try to bring together this great
0:07:27 > 0:07:29diversity of trees
0:07:29 > 0:07:33and life that kind of told a story in a way of the evolution
0:07:33 > 0:07:37of the planet through tree life from the earliest fossilised forests,
0:07:37 > 0:07:41erm, all the way to the present day, and encapsulating this
0:07:41 > 0:07:45somehow in a work that, erm, that's quite experiential.
0:07:45 > 0:07:47So I would like the viewer to feel as if they are
0:07:47 > 0:07:52kind of enclosed in this intimate space that unravels
0:07:52 > 0:07:56this kind of immensity of tree life, and that they could be standing
0:07:56 > 0:07:59inside a forest of every forest on Earth.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04Rachel is our wonderful archivist.
0:08:04 > 0:08:10She's been helping just catalogue, number, archive,
0:08:10 > 0:08:13label every single piece of wood that's come into the studio.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16- That's natural.- I know, that's wood.
0:08:16 > 0:08:20It's just not what you expect the inside of a tree to be like.
0:08:20 > 0:08:22Every one is different, from the sender
0:08:22 > 0:08:26and what information we already have on it, so, for example,
0:08:26 > 0:08:28if I put this one up, this is from Gary Green, and all of the
0:08:28 > 0:08:32- information is already on there, which is absolutely fantastic.- Yeah.
0:08:32 > 0:08:33So, in terms of me cataloguing it,
0:08:33 > 0:08:36we probably had the information already
0:08:36 > 0:08:39so we imported it through onto our document.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41We know by name pretty much the whole
0:08:41 > 0:08:43International Wood Collectors Society.
0:08:43 > 0:08:45Yes, yeah!
0:08:45 > 0:08:49So, this is the, I think... from one of the oldest trees
0:08:49 > 0:08:52in the world, this is Methuselah, which is from Lionel Daniels.
0:08:54 > 0:08:574,846 years old.
0:08:57 > 0:09:02So, this, we were so happy to get this because, erm, Lionel Daniels,
0:09:02 > 0:09:07a big wood collector, gave us one of the oldest ever trees on the planet,
0:09:07 > 0:09:11which we've been trying to hunt down, you know, for a long time now.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14- That's absolutely incredible. - I know, and it's all just...
0:09:14 > 0:09:16About a month or two ago,
0:09:16 > 0:09:19we were at 4,400 species,
0:09:19 > 0:09:22but we've been in talks for a long time with an amazing
0:09:22 > 0:09:24collector in Canada, Robert Ritchie,
0:09:24 > 0:09:29and he's just decided to give up his whole collection to us,
0:09:29 > 0:09:32which is phenomenal, so it's 5,500 species,
0:09:32 > 0:09:35so once that's gone through, erm, we'll have...
0:09:35 > 0:09:38- Yeah, we'll have hit our target. - Easily hit the target, yeah.
0:09:38 > 0:09:40Yeah, so we're kind of coming to the end,
0:09:40 > 0:09:43- actually, of the wood collecting phase, I would say...- Yes.
0:09:43 > 0:09:45..once that's arrived and catalogued,
0:09:45 > 0:09:47though that is a big process in itself.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01My work as a whole, it's pretty vast, actually,
0:10:01 > 0:10:03the territory that I deal with.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06I work a lot with space and the cosmos,
0:10:06 > 0:10:08and geology and earth.
0:10:08 > 0:10:12Usually works fall into those two pretty enormous arenas,
0:10:12 > 0:10:15but I'd say all of the works deal with collapsing this distance
0:10:15 > 0:10:21between time, nature, space, geology and the cosmos.
0:10:22 > 0:10:25So, for example, erm, another work that, erm,
0:10:25 > 0:10:29that's going to go on for my whole life is Future Library,
0:10:29 > 0:10:32which also involves, you know, trees, wood and the Earth,
0:10:32 > 0:10:37and I've planted a forest just outside Oslo that,
0:10:37 > 0:10:40in 100 years' time, when it's fully grown, the trees are going to be
0:10:40 > 0:10:44cut down, pulped and made into a book that's written now
0:10:44 > 0:10:48but isn't read for another 100 years, erm, so we are inviting
0:10:48 > 0:10:53one author every year to write a story, write anything they like.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57Erm, so, the first two authors for that are Margaret Atwood
0:10:57 > 0:11:01and David Mitchell, who also both write through time, so that's a work
0:11:01 > 0:11:04that deals with the Earth and time, you know, very much,
0:11:04 > 0:11:07so that it kind of catapults through time,
0:11:07 > 0:11:11but in a way quite a short timescale of 100 years, you know,
0:11:11 > 0:11:13because Hollow has millions of years!
0:11:29 > 0:11:31Er, we're in the xylarium, which is
0:11:31 > 0:11:35a wood library in Kew Gardens in London.
0:11:35 > 0:11:40It's the first time I've ever been to a xylarium, and we're
0:11:40 > 0:11:44about to meet Mark Nesbitt, who looks after the whole collection.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47He's the curator of economic botany,
0:11:47 > 0:11:52and they're kindly donating us a box of samples for Hollow.
0:11:52 > 0:11:56- So we've found some more woods for you.- Oh, fantastic.
0:11:57 > 0:12:02- Thank you so much. Box of goodies, yeah.- Yes, yes.- Oh, wow!
0:12:03 > 0:12:05Yeah, so what's in here?
0:12:05 > 0:12:10- Er, birch species here... - Yeah.- ..hornbeam...
0:12:10 > 0:12:13- Yeah.- ..and some more unfamiliar trees as well.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16- It's a real mixture of tropical and temperate.- That's very light.
0:12:16 > 0:12:20- Yes, spruce, another really light one.- That's a light spruce.- Yeah.
0:12:20 > 0:12:22Yeah, these look fantastic.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24These are great, thank you very much.
0:12:24 > 0:12:25Yeah, it's a pleasure.
0:12:26 > 0:12:27Oh, yes, yeah...
0:12:27 > 0:12:32So, I mean, overall, in the Economic Botany Collection, in this sort of
0:12:32 > 0:12:35huge space that we're in, there's about 95,000 specimens,
0:12:35 > 0:12:37but that's all genuses of plants,
0:12:37 > 0:12:41and the wood part that we're in now, we've got about 35,000...
0:12:41 > 0:12:4335,000, my goodness.
0:12:43 > 0:12:45Arranged, really, by plant families,
0:12:45 > 0:12:48that's a very botanical organisation about evolution,
0:12:48 > 0:12:51so we don't have a catalogue that says exactly what shelf
0:12:51 > 0:12:53things are on, cos you don't need to know that.
0:12:53 > 0:12:54But you just need to know that...
0:12:54 > 0:12:57If you need a name, you can come and find a specimen.
0:12:58 > 0:13:03So, this is W3, which is the kind of, erm,
0:13:03 > 0:13:08in-between category for unusually shaped pieces of wood.
0:13:08 > 0:13:10Oh, this is incredibly light wood here.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14It's a piece of light wood from Dutch New Guinea.
0:13:14 > 0:13:16Oh, goodness, it almost feels like...
0:13:16 > 0:13:20- It's even lighter than balsawood. - It's lighter than... Yeah.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23- Oh, wow, so that's a wood. - Yeah, yeah.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25I've never seen anything like this before.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28Yeah, so you've kept as much of the original...
0:13:28 > 0:13:31Yeah, this is very much a sort of botanical practice,
0:13:31 > 0:13:33that you always keep the documentation with the objects
0:13:33 > 0:13:35and with the specimen,
0:13:35 > 0:13:38and you add to it as time goes on so you can trace back...
0:13:38 > 0:13:41I see, so it's got all these different kind of timelines on it.
0:13:41 > 0:13:43So this must be the business card of the person who
0:13:43 > 0:13:46originally brought it to Kew,
0:13:46 > 0:13:50Mr A Pratt of Elmers Drive in Teddington.
0:14:00 > 0:14:05It's been fantastic, because Kew have donated a box of species,
0:14:05 > 0:14:08which have obviously come right from their wood collection,
0:14:08 > 0:14:10some are rare, some not so rare,
0:14:10 > 0:14:13but all of them have some kind of history, and kind of being here
0:14:13 > 0:14:15and seeing where they come from is wonderful,
0:14:15 > 0:14:20but also, right now we're missing just a few really important pieces.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23We're missing, I think, something like seven countries
0:14:23 > 0:14:25and then we'll have covered the world.
0:14:25 > 0:14:28We're missing four different families,
0:14:28 > 0:14:31and a few, really, that we just can't find them anywhere else,
0:14:31 > 0:14:36and I think Kew are going to give us a little sample of each of them,
0:14:36 > 0:14:40which basically completes our whole collection, so that's amazing.
0:15:13 > 0:15:17So, we're at the Arnolfini in Bristol, erm, working on Hollow,
0:15:17 > 0:15:20and we're using this massive space,
0:15:20 > 0:15:23Gallery One, to sort out our 10,000 pieces of wood,
0:15:23 > 0:15:26and I've been mapping out on the floor the different
0:15:26 > 0:15:28zones of the artwork, erm, so there's a...
0:15:28 > 0:15:31There's the floor, there's the ceiling, there's left upper,
0:15:31 > 0:15:34left lower, right upper, right lower, erm,
0:15:34 > 0:15:38so we're organising all of the wood into the zones it's going to be
0:15:38 > 0:15:41built in in the final artwork.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45Given that we have 10,000 pieces of wood, and so we now have this
0:15:45 > 0:15:49really thorough record of what every single piece of wood is...
0:15:49 > 0:15:51However, organising it's another story,
0:15:51 > 0:15:54cos there are so many ways that it could be arranged.
0:15:54 > 0:15:58One is through time, which is what I'm the most interested in.
0:15:58 > 0:16:00Erm, another is, like, through geography.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03We could have the continents separated, erm,
0:16:03 > 0:16:05or through species and family, like a kind of...
0:16:05 > 0:16:08literally a biological tree of trees.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11But actually what we realised is that, in a way, like,
0:16:11 > 0:16:15imposing another human narrative on this wood doesn't actually
0:16:15 > 0:16:17make that much sense, and instead,
0:16:17 > 0:16:21because of the complexity of where all of this wood has come from,
0:16:21 > 0:16:24that actually what's way more interesting is fragmenting it all
0:16:24 > 0:16:27and what happens when these species go together
0:16:27 > 0:16:30that would just never, you know, otherwise sit together.
0:16:34 > 0:16:38Yeah, so just now we're going to work on one of the clusters,
0:16:38 > 0:16:41the colour, the gradient of colour,
0:16:41 > 0:16:45so basically in the, er, lower right zone,
0:16:45 > 0:16:47so when you're inside looking down here there's going to be
0:16:47 > 0:16:50a gradient of colour of wood that goes from, like,
0:16:50 > 0:16:53really dark woods up through the reds to the lighter ones.
0:16:53 > 0:16:56So I'm going to go through each zone
0:16:56 > 0:17:00and pull out some of the really purply, red and dark colours,
0:17:00 > 0:17:03and then eventually we'll put them all in that section
0:17:03 > 0:17:05and rearrange them by colour.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12I think it was quite apparent that, from a young age,
0:17:12 > 0:17:15probably being an artist was what I was going to do.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18I went to art school,
0:17:18 > 0:17:22where it became quite obvious that I didn't really fit within any
0:17:22 > 0:17:26particular department, you know, I would flit around departments,
0:17:26 > 0:17:28from, you know, the kind of design departments,
0:17:28 > 0:17:31even architecture, and I ended up doing
0:17:31 > 0:17:35a really interdisciplinary course which suited me a lot.
0:17:36 > 0:17:40I actually, at many points, tried to avoid being an artist
0:17:40 > 0:17:42because it's, you know...
0:17:42 > 0:17:45I think a lot of people have the idea that it's maybe an easy
0:17:45 > 0:17:49or very fulfilling, you know, profession. And it is fulfilling,
0:17:49 > 0:17:54definitely, but it's not easy at all, and especially with the kind of
0:17:54 > 0:17:57projects that I've ended up doing, it is really demanding and difficult
0:17:57 > 0:18:00and stressful, and, you know, there's a whole number of things
0:18:00 > 0:18:05that I would never have predicted as being an artist's work.
0:18:09 > 0:18:11What I did was...
0:18:13 > 0:18:14..took apart all...
0:18:14 > 0:18:18Well, first of all, I had to order them by size and shape for the...
0:18:18 > 0:18:20So, this is Jon Bridle.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24He's an evolutionary biologist at the University of Bristol,
0:18:24 > 0:18:26and we've been having lots of discussions about the
0:18:26 > 0:18:30organisation, especially, of the wood inside the interior of Hollow.
0:18:30 > 0:18:34That's something that comes out really quite quickly, for me -
0:18:34 > 0:18:36at least, from this work, it's really quite striking -
0:18:36 > 0:18:39is how the connections, you don't have to impose them now because
0:18:39 > 0:18:42all these organisms are so closely related, they're all angiosperms.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45- Yeah.- You only have to go back, you know, some of them
0:18:45 > 0:18:48- just a few 100,000 years, and you'll find...- And the connection's there?
0:18:48 > 0:18:50Yeah, you'll find a population where they would have had sex
0:18:50 > 0:18:52- with each other...- Yeah, yeah.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54..at some recent time in the past, and now they might be living
0:18:54 > 0:18:56in completely different places or
0:18:56 > 0:18:58having completely different habitats that they use.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02Yeah, and even the area fossils that we have there at the back,
0:19:02 > 0:19:05you know, that kind of roots all the way back through the deep time
0:19:05 > 0:19:08to the first trees, the first forests, and even algae.
0:19:08 > 0:19:11Yeah, a lot of what we've been talking about are these
0:19:11 > 0:19:13interconnections between all of them
0:19:13 > 0:19:17and how to even think about structuring the inside of this.
0:19:24 > 0:19:26Science progresses by...
0:19:26 > 0:19:29us being wrong about stuff, but in quite clever ways.
0:19:29 > 0:19:30And, in a way, I mean,
0:19:30 > 0:19:33I think there are as many connections between science
0:19:33 > 0:19:35and art in that sense that good science
0:19:35 > 0:19:38and good art makes you feel, at least makes me feel, quite humble.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41It shows you something that you didn't imagine before,
0:19:41 > 0:19:44that makes you re-examine something you thought you understood but
0:19:44 > 0:19:47actually has much more depth than you imagined,
0:19:47 > 0:19:50because the real world is much more strange than we can even imagine.
0:19:50 > 0:19:52You know, fact must be stranger than fiction,
0:19:52 > 0:19:55because fiction only contains the things that we can imagine,
0:19:55 > 0:19:59so, you know, art is giving us this new way, or can,
0:19:59 > 0:20:02and science too takes us right to the threshold of what we know
0:20:02 > 0:20:05and shows us new ways to imagine the world.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08And things we thought we understood, that we were familiar with,
0:20:08 > 0:20:11suddenly become much deeper and much more complex,
0:20:11 > 0:20:15but art really helps me to escape my preconceptions about the world.
0:20:19 > 0:20:23So, on Wednesday, all the wood's getting taken to the fabricator,
0:20:23 > 0:20:26so on Friday we all have a big meeting,
0:20:26 > 0:20:29the architects are coming from Mexico, and we're all going to
0:20:29 > 0:20:32sit round and, like, sign off the final designs,
0:20:32 > 0:20:34and then after that it goes full into production.
0:20:34 > 0:20:38All the wood will be cut, erm, and then it'll be fabricated into the
0:20:38 > 0:20:42structure, so I think we're working on it in separate panels,
0:20:42 > 0:20:46and bit by bit, so it'll be quite a fluid process.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18We're at millimetre in Brighton, and they're a really big, erm,
0:21:18 > 0:21:19artwork fabricators.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22They work for architects and artists,
0:21:22 > 0:21:25and they've produced really large-scale, difficult artworks.
0:21:34 > 0:21:38So, these are all of our wood collection.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41This bit is still being cut, this is what's been cut,
0:21:41 > 0:21:45and these are some of our really special pieces that, erm,
0:21:45 > 0:21:47that we're going to cut today, so that's exciting.
0:21:47 > 0:21:52Erm, this is from the grand fir at Ardkinglas Arboretum,
0:21:52 > 0:21:55and then this is our interior shell,
0:21:55 > 0:21:59where we're attaching all the 10,000 pieces of wood.
0:21:59 > 0:22:03So this is day two of working on it.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07The whole shell, obviously, has been constructed in advance,
0:22:07 > 0:22:09but now we're doing the final work,
0:22:09 > 0:22:14we're sticking every single piece of wood into our shell.
0:22:14 > 0:22:16Obviously, already you can see,
0:22:16 > 0:22:18if you just take one small section,
0:22:18 > 0:22:21there's a lot of different things going on with the colours
0:22:21 > 0:22:25and the forms, and we're kind of cutting as we go, but then just,
0:22:25 > 0:22:28you know, if we need a smaller piece we've just got it right there,
0:22:28 > 0:22:30so we just cut it, stick it right in.
0:22:32 > 0:22:34But, you know, the thing that I've got to be careful with is
0:22:34 > 0:22:37I can't get too stuck on looking at every single piece cos
0:22:37 > 0:22:41there's, you know, 10,000, and we'll be here for the rest of my life,
0:22:41 > 0:22:45just about, if I start looking at every single one.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50Will those be difficult to cut down or just need...?
0:22:51 > 0:22:55You'll have to run them over the planer to get a flat side first.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58Just take a bit of time, and then once you've got one flat side
0:22:58 > 0:23:00you can put them over the saw and square them off.
0:23:00 > 0:23:02- Yeah.- So you'll end up...
0:23:02 > 0:23:04You know, if you want to get that perfectly square
0:23:04 > 0:23:06you'll end up with something that's about that big.
0:23:06 > 0:23:08- Yeah.- I mean, that one might...
0:23:08 > 0:23:09Yeah, that looks...
0:23:09 > 0:23:12- The holly might disintegrate. - Oh, what a shame, I hope not.
0:23:12 > 0:23:15I don't think so, though, cos if we base it
0:23:15 > 0:23:18around the heart of the tree, then it should stay together.
0:23:23 > 0:23:27The collaborative aspect of my work is at the forefront, really,
0:23:27 > 0:23:30it's really important to everything.
0:23:30 > 0:23:33You know, I need the expertise of all the people that are fabricating
0:23:33 > 0:23:36this, and sure, I can kind of glue on some samples,
0:23:36 > 0:23:38but really it's a kind of...
0:23:38 > 0:23:40It's all of this that's gone into the work that is
0:23:40 > 0:23:42the artwork at the end of the day.
0:23:42 > 0:23:45Saying that, I like a quite hands-on approach still.
0:23:45 > 0:23:47I'm always there, you know, when my work's being made,
0:23:47 > 0:23:51and definitely not the kind of artist that kind of sends off
0:23:51 > 0:23:54an e-mail with the drawing in it, and then, you know, it arrives.
0:23:54 > 0:23:56That's definitely not my approach.
0:23:58 > 0:24:02- I'm going to keep these ones. - Really nice dark one, that.- Yeah!
0:24:02 > 0:24:05So we're going to end up not cutting most of them anyway!
0:24:05 > 0:24:10- No, let's cut that one.- Yeah. - Oh, how can we cut that? I mean...
0:24:10 > 0:24:13Right, I'm keeping these aside,
0:24:13 > 0:24:17I'm just going to put these in as a whole, cos they're lovely.
0:24:20 > 0:24:23We're going to cut the piece of wood from Ardkinglas,
0:24:23 > 0:24:26the champion tree, grand fir, so...
0:24:40 > 0:24:42So, we'll just... We can take off...
0:24:42 > 0:24:44- Take off that bit.- ..that side...
0:24:44 > 0:24:46Yeah, yeah, I think that side and that side,
0:24:46 > 0:24:49and we'll leave that, cos that's really nice.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00I think, erm, I've never actually seen a piece of tree become
0:25:00 > 0:25:04a piece of wood till now, so it's really nice.
0:25:04 > 0:25:05Look at that.
0:25:20 > 0:25:24So, today is the day that we're installing Hollow.
0:25:24 > 0:25:25At last it's come.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29Erm, this is the first time I've actually seen it as a whole piece,
0:25:29 > 0:25:33and it's about to get craned in over this ancient wall.
0:25:45 > 0:25:47Today's the first day of installation.
0:25:47 > 0:25:49We've got another four to go.
0:25:49 > 0:25:53So the site's in action, all the team are here installing it,
0:25:53 > 0:25:58the final piece has been craned in, the interior's just about finished,
0:25:58 > 0:26:01but the rest of the site is being finished over the next few days.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16So, we're going to take a look for the first time.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42I'm...I'm feeling good being inside Hollow, seeing it here with
0:26:42 > 0:26:46the light coming in and feeling what it feels like to be inside it.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49Weeks and weeks and weeks in the workshop, but it feels so different
0:26:49 > 0:26:51when it's actually out here in the landscape,
0:26:51 > 0:26:54where it's going to be for the rest of its life.
0:26:57 > 0:27:01I hope people come in, take some quiet time from the university,
0:27:01 > 0:27:04but from anywhere, because it's a public, open space.
0:27:04 > 0:27:08It's an artwork for, you know, for anybody to come in.
0:27:08 > 0:27:10I'm pleased that we did put
0:27:10 > 0:27:14so much effort into this idea of time flowing through it, so that the
0:27:14 > 0:27:18most ancient trees are to the base, and then it works its way up,
0:27:18 > 0:27:20and if you look into the ceiling,
0:27:20 > 0:27:23that's where the extinct or near endangered trees are,
0:27:23 > 0:27:26so it's almost like you're looking up into the present day
0:27:26 > 0:27:28when you look up into the sky.
0:27:31 > 0:27:36So, this is a piece from the grand fir, erm, from Ardkinglas,
0:27:36 > 0:27:38so it's made it here.
0:27:38 > 0:27:40Every piece of wood was cut into two,
0:27:40 > 0:27:44and we've kept the second part to form a second wood collection,
0:27:44 > 0:27:47basically, for the University of Bristol,
0:27:47 > 0:27:49and that'll all be open to the public,
0:27:49 > 0:27:53so the university will have a complete collection of the wood.
0:28:07 > 0:28:11I feel really grateful, actually, that I've somehow stumbled
0:28:11 > 0:28:16into this work that, erm, to begin with seemed totally impossible.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19I would be turning up with a little bit of paper with an absurd
0:28:19 > 0:28:22idea on it that could probably never, ever be made,
0:28:22 > 0:28:23and Hollow is, you know,
0:28:23 > 0:28:28a good example of trying to collect a planet's worth of trees.
0:28:28 > 0:28:32You can say it in a few words but actually making that happen is
0:28:32 > 0:28:36a few years of research and working with huge networks of people.
0:28:37 > 0:28:40I'll have ideas that seem completely out of reach,
0:28:40 > 0:28:44but I think if I gave up at the first hurdle, you know,
0:28:44 > 0:28:46none of these things would have happened.