Ineffectual interspecies protection

This is the first panel of a larger, durational textile project; it was installed on this black ash tree on Tuesday evening in the late spring sunshine.

 I have stitched 175 hawthorn needles in red thread to a used cotton bedsheet. To bind the sheet to the tree, I chose a stitch that resembles a suture. To understand a bit more about why the bedsheet, and why red thread, read this earlier post.

The hawthorn which protects the haw tree, provides no protection to the ash. 

The Emerald Ash Borer, were it to make it to this part of the Island this year, would begin its work in the spring. It takes about a year to kill a tree, sometimes two in cold climates. During that year I will stitch the other panels. My quiet work and the quiet work of the ash borer.

Marks.