Cityforest, replanted Christmas trees, Tompkins Square Park, NYC, January 1997.

Cityforest refers to the masses of discarded but still fresh and wonderful trees that litter the streets of Manhattan for weeks immediately after Christmas. Still decorated, they hold a lot of potential to adorn and please us with their appearance and smell, yet due to calendar regulations they are thrown out to make room for the New Year. I wanted to gather 200 cut trees, ‘replant’ them in a city park, and let them stand until every last needle fell off. The prototype of five trees was arranged in Tompkins Square Park for one day only and for the picture. The project was then proposed to the Public Art Fund in 1997, 1998 and 1999, and was finally commissioned in 2000. After some initial site scouting and a lot of research (by which I found out that all NYC Christmas trees arrive on trucks from Canada where they are especially grown for the occasion), we received a stern letter from the NYC Fire Department, proclaiming it a fire hazard and canceling the work with immediate effect.