After asking this question at Underskog, a Norwegian Internet society I got a lot of really good responses. My conclusion was that almost everyone has some really good childhood memories form climbing in trees. In fact there were many who had almost had a kind of relationship with one particular tree. The tree-crone is the perfect place to hide away, and to create your own personal atmosphere where the adults don’t enter.
But part of being a child is also to learn. And after falling down form a tree, it’s easy to get scared and not to climb up there again. As adults we are very orientated towards consequences in everything we do, and climbing means taking the risk of falling down and possibly injure your self.
Another aspect, pointed out from the answers, was the social aspect. As an adult there are certain expectations to how you should act, what you should do and don’t. It’s a whole system of behaviour rules, and if you do something different, then people might think less of you, or at least not support you!
Maybe we adults are not so good at seeing the positive consequences? I would actually claim that if you as an adult dear to break from the rules of the society, to climb and liberate your self from the ground where you have all your responsibilities it would give you a liberating feeling, something you can benefit from in many different areas in life.
I am so lucky to have been chosen by ANSA – the association of Norwegian Students Abroad, to be one of artist who get to exhibition on this years Juvenarte exhibition! So now you can actually see my Off-ground prosject “in real life” at Galleri Ramfjord in Oslo, from 4.-7. Of September 2008.
So my presentation is done and it went very well! Though I am finished with the Off Ground project I will probably continuing on, posting some news here once in a while… depending on what will happen with my project. I already have some plans that I wan´t reveal just yet… So stay tuned!
I have therefore created “Chair me up”, a product with a ladder and a chair, that comes in a fancy bag and can easily be attached to a bough or a branch. “ Chair me up” will be 210 meter when folded all out, and 70 cm when it’s all closed. The chair has 4 adjustable hinges, so that it can be folded together and occupy less space! The total weight is only 4 kilos!
In order to see if there still was someone who enjoyed climbing in trees, I invited family and friends for a day between the branches. I invited a lot of people and at the end there were 18 people brave enough to return to do something some of them haven’t done since their childhood. Everyone were exited and positive before we started, and the day just got better!
We get introduced to trees and plants through fairytales when we are kids. The tree is often represented as a wise and old character, and it often has human skills such as the ability to walk and talk. The plants and trees are often represented as something mystical and magical, and maybe this has some of the reason to why kids wants to climb and create their own magical tree-castles. Some examples of fairytales are:
When I was a kid I had my own tree in the backyard of our house, and I often climbed in it. The tree was an old birch, and after several years together I really did feel like it became a good friend.
When I started this blog I found my self in a difficult moment of my life. I was seriously ill and had spent 2 weeks in an Italian hospital, a big, old, grey and scary building.
