CHESTERWOOD (2024 - 2026)
WORK IN PROGRESS
INTRO
From autumn 2024 through spring 2026, a section of Chesterwood’s old growth forest has been transformed into two arboreal installations by internationally known visual artist (who lives locally), Kathleen Jacobs. As the 2025 Helga Orthofer Painter-in-Residence, Jacobs has created 21 new works, which explore the impact of climate change on the mature landscape at Chesterwood and will be exhibited at Chesterwood’s 47th annual contemporary outdoor sculpture show, “Global Warning/ Global Warming”.
First, visitors will pass through Torii. This distinctive scarlet installation at the beginning of the Chesterwood property is inspired by traditional red Japanese gates, which are typically located at the entrances of Shinto shrines and serve as thresholds between the mundane and the sacred.
Visitors will then be drawn into Chesterwood’s old-growth forest by Ode to Ise (inspired by the most sacred Shinto shrine in Japan). Nineteen trees of various species have been wrapped in painted linen, as part of Jacobs’ signature technique, creating a vibrant path through the copse. Each tree is accompanied by a QR code that leads to a brief explanation of its role in the forest, and possible ecological threats to the local environment.
From 1772-- the year the oldest tree in the installation was planted-- to the present, a confluence of man-made and natural forces have had a strong impact on the landscape. This forest was once dominated by chestnut trees, after which the property was named. A blight at the end of the nineteenth-century decimated this once thriving species. Red oak trees replaced the chestnuts in this forest, and can be viewed throughout Ode to Ise. But nature is continually evolving, and new ecological threats now threaten the red oak tree and many other species in Chesterwood. Jacobs’ work draws attention to how various organisms-- including humans-- interact and support each other in a delicate and complex ecosystem.
OLD GROWTH FORESTS
Old growth forests are forests that have been undisturbed by human activity, such as clearcutting, or by major natural disasters, like storms, fire, or disease, allowing various species of trees of different ages to flourish and form a thriving ecosystem. These environments are characterized by their uneven canopies, abundant dead wood, and great diversity of plants, animals, herbs, seeds, lichen, and fungi. These kinds of forests once dominated the landscape of the northeast, particularly the Berkshire foothills ecoregion; however, after extensive logging in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries, only one percent of old growth forests still remain.
The negatives of clearcutting are manifold– it increases the danger of wildfires, releases carbon and accelerates climate change, threatens wildlife, depletes soil nutrients, and degrades the water supply– while the benefits of forest preservation are innumerable. Old growth forests store carbon, have greater resilience in the face of disease and climate change, and allow for greater biodiversity.
The opportunity to wander through an old growth forest like Chesterwood is truly invaluable. An old growth forest is not stagnant, and is not a window into the past. Instead, it is a dynamic and constantly evolving environment. Plants grow, reproduce, die, decay, and foster new life; soils build and erode; the wind blows, frost forms then melts, the sun shines, rain and snow fall and evaporate; animals and humans come and go.
Change not only happens on the daily, micro level, but on a more gradual, grander scale as well. The old growth forest is an important resource to protect the Berkshires against the impact of climate change, but the landscape has been, and will continue to be shaped by climate change. As these natural processes take place, they will leave indelible marks on the canvases installed here, and remind us of the power and fragility of nature.