Miranda Whall – Crossed Paths – Scots Pine, Glasgow COP26.

Carlow Art Collection
Carlow College, College Street, Carlow Town, R93 A003.
Friday, February 10th 2023, starting at 1pm.
1.00 pm – The Carlow Art Collection present Crossed Paths – Scots Pine, Glasgow Cop26,
by Miranda Whall at Carlow College,
1.30 pm – Tree planting in the front garden of Carlow College,
2.00 pm – Miranda Whall Artist’s Talk, Cobden Hall, Carlow College,
2.30 pm – Curator Rosalind Murray in conversation with Miranda Whall, Cobden Hall, Carlow College.
In May 2019 The Republic of Ireland and the UK Parliament declared a climate and biodiversity
emergency with calls to action.
On Saturday 6th November 2021, the artist Miranda Whall crawled with a six year old Scots Pine tree
on her back through the centre of the City of Glasgow to the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of
the Parties (COP 26), hosted by the UK, 31 October – 13 November 2021.
“My hope is that crawling to the COP26 United Nations climate change conference carrying a tree,
that is equal in size to my body, might inspire human beings to re- think and re- align their relationship
to trees, seeing them not only as a resource to use and abuse but as an ally and a vital source of
knowledge. Animals, plants, trees, air, earth and oceans should be, metaphorically, sitting at the
discussion table with heads of government and delegates.”
Supported by:
Over the last year, The Carlow Art Collection and Whall worked together to create a unique artwork for
the permanent collection. Crossed Paths – Scots Pine, Glasgow COP26 by Miranda Whall enters the
The Carlow Art Collection as a sequence of Twentynine intimate photographs sourced from her
extensive documentation. Whall wears multiple body-cameras to capture new points of view and
sound-scapes in the city from her crawling position; she describes herself as a human-vegetal-digital
hybrid. We also drew from third-party documentation including wide angle film by Tim Sandy, and the
livestream footage for social media taken on a phone by Kate Rolt. We selected and grouped stills to
represent the variety of photographic formats used to capture the artist’s determined and silent
procession with Scots Pine, through heavy rain and high winds, from Glasgow Sculpture Studios on
Dawson road, through the City Centre with its Saturday shoppers and seers which included a
ubiquitous police presence, to the COP26 Green Zone in the Science Centre on the Clyde Waterfront
Regeneration area.
“I believe that we all literally need to get down from our human centric, two – legged, dominant and
hierarchical position and start recognising our non-human vegetal others as equals, and as sentient
beings with a voice – that we crucially need to listen to if we are to find a way out of our human made
catastrophe.”
The Carlow Art Collection worked with Whall to document, archive, and present her live art and this
brave, tragic/comic art activism, firstly to invite engagement with the richness of the artist’s imagery
and street photography, and secondly, to reflect on potentials to translate personal and collective
grief, despair and outrage into response to the climate emergency and ecological crisis.
The Carlow Art Collection is delighted to add two Scots Pine trees to the Carlow Art Collection with
Crossed Paths – Scots Pine, Glasgow COP26. A Scots Pine will be planted in the grounds of Carlow
College during the launch on 10th February, and the tree Whall crawled with will be planted in
Aberystwyth University, Wales.
Whall’s film will also be screened at the presentation in Carlow College on February 10th and
thereafter on our website carlowartcollection.ie.

Origins

Set up in 1992, The Carlow Art Collection is a voluntary community initiative that has been surrounded by goodwill and generosity from the people of Carlow. It has expanded into a diverse collection of work with artists from around the world. CAC became a fully registered charity in 2018. The home of our art collection is in Carlow College. The Carlow Art Collection is free to view in the front halls of Carlow College, Monday to Friday, and in the garden every day of the year.

Today

The art works in the permanent collection include painting, print, drawing, sculpture, sound, photography, live art, film and activism, with more to come. The collection and CAC projects reflect a broad range of art by over thirty artists, many of whom visited, exhibited, engaged with or lived in the area.

Our Goal

The CAC is deeply indebted to the artists who contribute to the collection, to its board members past and present, and to the many people and organisations that support it technically and financially. The Carlow Art Collection will continue to expand on the ideas of what art is and what an art collection can be, and become.