Description

Ackroyd and Harvey; Autumn Leaves is part of a unique limited edition print series by these celebrated British environmental artists, relating to their Beuys’ Acorns project. In 2007, Ackroyd & Harvey gathered and germinated hundreds of acorns from renowned artist Joseph Beuys’s seminal artwork ‘7000 Oaks’. He had created this for Documenta 7 in 1982, in Kassel, Germany as an environmental and economic statement. For them, this began a new and symbolic research project. Beuys’s Acorns explores a range of ideas associated with the provenance of the trees. They provoke questions as to the artists’ relationship with nature, the changing climate and collapsing economic order. Beuys had a mission to change the social order. His main concern was the money system. Ackroyd & Harvey bring his concerns into a contemporary context. They ask ‘what is the legacy of Beuys’s mission, given the climate of ecological and economic degradation at the beginning of the 21st century?’ They exhibit the trees regularly as they grow, and each time the artists organise an active conference programme alongside. ackroydandharvey.com

About the artist

Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey are two of the most innovative artists working in the realm of environment and art. They have collaborated as artists  since 1990. Alongside each of their dramatic visual art works and installations, they campaign and communicate the ideas behind and around them. Scientific discovery and experiment, environmental and ecological activism are very much part of their practice and mission as artists. Ackroyd & Harvey are GroundWork Network Associates. For more details about their work in association with an Arts Council funded project in King’s Lynn for Beuys’ Acorns see our blog here.