It may be a midlife crisis, says the man behind seven-metre installations of the Earth, moon and Sun who has planted 365 trees in a 100-year project in Somerset
Luke Jerram, whose art installations have travelled the world, is philosophical about his latest project bearing fruit beyond his time on Earth.
Known for his Play Me I’m Yours street pianos project and his Museum of the Moon artwork – a seven-metre diameter sculpture of the moon featuring detailed Nasa imagery of the lunar surface – Jerram is now working on Echo Wood, a living, breathing installation made of native British trees.
Planted this winter in Somerset’s Chew Valley, in collaboration with the charity Avon Needs Trees, the 365 trees – crabapple, hawthorn and oak – will slowly grow into a vast 110-metre-wide design and will take a century to fully emerge, long after Jerram is gone.
“In 50 to 100 years I’m not going to be here,” Jerram, 50, says next to a scale model of the project in his studio in Bristol. “I’m at a stage in my career when I’m starting to look forward, I’m not looking back.
