City of Trees (2010–13)
The National Library of Australia, Canberra, Australia
In 2010 Bradley was invited to Canberra, Australia with a view to creating a new public-art project to mark the city’s centenary in 2013 (she was the only non-Australian artist to receive such an invite). On arriving in Canberra she was immediately struck by the vast numbers of trees, one million of which were nearly 100 years old, having been planted when the city was originally founded. For Bradley, trees became a means of understanding and exploring Canberra and her people. In response she created a suite of audio works, each of which focused on a particular tree or on a person in whose life trees played a pivotal role.
City of Trees was a major exhibition at The National Library of Australia (July- October 2013) which showed all the work that Bradley had made over the course of her three-year project. The centrepiece of the exhibition was a group of specially designed sound portals – architectural forms made for listening – that each housed an audio work. Reflecting the wider Library beyond the exhibition space, references to printing and works on paper, card and cardboard ran through the works and space, as well as references to light: the key to all green growth. City of Trees was commissioned by Robyn Archer and C100, Canberra. All audio works were created in collaboration with BBC radio producer Jonquil Panting.
Click here for exhibition essay by Michael Desmond
Click here for essay on City of Trees by Sarah Jayne Parsons
Film on the making of City of Trees by Rob Nugent
Constituent works:
Light Portals – lightbox diptych
Tree 20– audio work
Conversation with Trees after Fire– audio work
Amongst the Oaks– audio work
Architecture Makes Form; Trees Create Space – suite of 25 drawings on vintage herbarium paper
Scatterproof (Canberra) – suite of 12 photographic prints on Hahnemule paper
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