'Write off the Map'

Gough's work was selected by curator Amy Cutler a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow and post-doctoral research fellow in geography at Royal Holloway University, UK. The field of research addressed through this exhibition examined the link between the French horticultural term "forest trauma" and Robert Pogue Harrison's "forests of nostalgia". It addressed a whole discipline around history, witnessing, and the memorial qualities of woodland. Curated art works examined the cultural expression of time and history in the forest; they were situated alongside archival photographs, small press texts, artefacts, and museum objects, in an old, low-lit belfry designed by Sir John Soane. Paul Gough's Upas Tree drawings take inspiration from Paul Nash's wartime paintings, which link corpses to shattered or blasted trees, but also from the enigmatic fable of the dreaded Upas Tree, based in turn on the tale of the poisonous anchar tree, first revealed by 18th century botanist Erasmus Darwin. The French term "forest trauma", used for post-war ecological devastation, is echoed by the linking of man and tree in the commonly used phrase 'veteran tree'.

策展人艾米·卡特勒（Amy Cutler）同时担任英国皇家霍洛威大学地理学领域的莱弗休姆早期职业研究员（Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow）与博士后研究员，她遴选了保罗·高夫的作品。本次展览所围绕的研究议题，旨在探讨法语园艺学术语"森林创伤（forest trauma）"与罗伯特·波格·哈里森（Robert Pogue Harrison）提出的"怀旧森林（forests of nostalgia）"之间的关联。该研究围绕林地的历史属性、见证价值与纪念意义构建了完整的学科范畴。策展艺术作品聚焦森林中时间与历史的文化表达，展览场地为约翰·索恩爵士（Sir John Soane）设计的老旧昏暗钟楼，同期展出的还包括档案照片、小众出版物文本、文物及博物馆藏品。保罗·高夫的《箭毒木》系列画作创作灵感源自两处：其一来自保罗·纳什（Paul Nash）战时绘画中"尸体与被摧毁、炸断的树木"的关联意象；其二则来自令人费解的恐怖箭毒木寓言——该寓言又改编自18世纪植物学家伊拉斯谟斯·达尔文（Erasmus Darwin）首次记载的有毒见血封喉树（anchar tree）的故事。原本用于指代战后生态破坏的法语术语"森林创伤（forest trauma）"，与日常用语中"老龄树（veteran tree）"所承载的"人与树木联结"的意象形成了呼应。