To mark Kew’s Year of the Tree I was invited to produce a series of sculptures investigating the inner workings of an oak tree.

Consultation with Kew’s plant morphologists and close study of electron micrographs lead to the creation of six pieces that explore what we would see if we shrank to a height of less than one millimetre.

At this scale the structures that make up the vascular system of a tree – xylem, phloem vessels, root hairs and stomata take on a strange beauty. The sculptures were carved into and sited around a massive wind-blown oak that was brought into the gardens and sited in front of the Victoria Gate. They were later relocated close to the Treetop Walkway.