Lignou-Tsamantani, Kyveli (2025) Sycamore Gap Tree: From an iconic image to a “visible gap”. In: 'An Unremarkable Wood’ Symposium (organised by Chrysalis Arts Development and York St John University), 12 June 2025, York St John University. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

On 28 September 2023, news readers were informed that the Sycamore Gap tree had been illegally cut down. An outpour of responses was shared amongst traditional and social media. The felling of this "remarkable" tree, the icon of the 1991 film "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves", was marked as a loss. Yet, what kind of loss was it? In what ways is this perceived in a context that moves beyond a cultural realm to this of “legal rights for natural objects” (C. D. Stone, 1972; 2010)? The paper will explore the visual representations of the various “photographed events”–to use Azoulay’s terminology (2012)–in order to consider those questions. By starting from the history of the Sycamore Gap tree, the analysis will focus on the still and moving images, as well as artistic projects that were created before and after the illegal cut.

The paper aims to examine these two temporal “events” (in their multiplicity) in order to consider how these might assist different layers of ethical acknowledgement of a photographed “subject” that could be seen as having shifting identities: from iconic images to a visual absence – a visible gap. The paper proposes that this visible gap can be read as more than just the outcome of a violent, illegal act. If the iconic nature of the photographed subject (tree) was perceived through certain “cultural codes”–to borrow Hall’s term (1997)–in what ways can its absence denote a consideration of our existence in a post-anthropocene world? This “visible gap” offers an invitation to the viewers to actively reconsider their ethical stance in a world of environmental crises.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Status:	Unpublished
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BH Aesthetics B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BJ Ethics N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR > N0061-72 Theory. Philosophy. Aesthetics of the visual arts T Technology > TR Photography
School/Department:	School of the Arts
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/12280

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