'Opera For Trees' Art Exhibit Coming To Prospect Park

PROSPECT PARK, BROOKLYN — An art exhibit on its way to Prospect Park will celebrate perhaps the most essential residents of Brooklyn's backyard — its 30,000 trees.

The public art installation, called "The Last Stand," will bring a 10-hour experimental opera to the park, inviting visitors to learn about the centuries-long life cycle of trees while exploring their connection to the species.

It will be brought to the park by Creative Time, who chose artist Kamala Sankaram's piece from more than 400 applicants.

“Kamala Sankaram breaks open the possibilities of opera in her first public artwork," said Diya Vij, associate curator with Creative Time. "Composed entirely of field recordings and archival sounds of the forest, this experimental soundscape takes the life of a tree as its starting point, de-prioritizing the human experience and reorienting us to the expanse and necessity of multispecies kinship."

The "opera for trees" will run from Sept. 18 through Oct. 10 at the park.

Using recordings from the environment, it will chronicle the lifespan of a 300-year-old Northern Red Oak, the "Mother Tree," between the years of 1750 to 2050. Mother Tree is found in a diverse ecosystem in upstate New York known as the Black Rock Forest, according to organizers.

The lifespan includes typical tree and canopy noises and sounds that mimic threats like excess rain, logging, fire, non-native insects and climate change.

"Over the course of 10 hours, the opera spans the Mother Tree’s life from acorn to its 'last stand,' the final burst of life-giving energy a tree gives to its vast forest life network before it dies," organizers write. "...Central to the installation is the act of translation: Sankaram translates scientific literature, tree communication, and historic environmental sounds into subsonic vibrations for multiple registers of tree and human sensation."

Visitors can enjoy the sounds by listening or feeling the installation on vibrational benches.

The piece was inspired by a discovery that trees communicate and share resources with each other made by Dr. Suzanne Simard.

It is supported by Costa Brazil, the city's Parks Department and the Prospect Park Alliance.

Read more about the exhibit here.