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Urban Forest Project (completed 2020)
©2006 Stephanie Cunningham
Times Square, New York 3 x 7ft
The Urban Forest Project placed 200 banners by selected designers, artists, photographers and illustrators from around the world in New York’s Times Square. Each banner used the form of the tree, or a metaphor for the tree, to make a powerful visual statement. Together they created a forest of thoughtful visual art in one of the world’s busiest, most energetic and emphatically urban intersections. visited by 30 million people each year to encourage passersby to pause, if only for a moment, to be entertained, stimulated or provoked by the work.*
The tree is a graceful work of nature’s art and an elegant metaphor for personal growth. The goal was to capture both in a simple visual haiku. The image is a composite of 5 layers including a cyanotype print, a photograph of carved tree initials, a found pattern, and text as leaf pattern and a snippet of poetry, ”small golden leaf, blazing in the snow, the grass green grows.” The carved initials, a wound to the tree and silent tribute, represent the love and growth that persist in spite of our wounds.
*AIGA New York Chapter, Times Square Alliance, and Worldstudio Foundation, inspired by the AIGA initiative Design Ignites Change.