The prestigious £25,000 Charles Wollaston Award has been won by artist Uta Kögelsberger for her video work CULL in the Royal Academy’s 254th Summer Exhibition. Established in 1978 and presented to the ‘most distinguished work’ in the exhibition, it is one of the most significant art prizes awarded in the UK.
CULL follows the gigantic task of the clear-up process after the devastating impact of wildfires. It charts the efforts of the teams responsible for cutting down the dead trees left standing that are now endangering the remaining structures and roads. In a swansong to the unique ecosystem that has been lost each tree is documented as it comes crashing to the ground, seemingly out of nowhere, like dead carcasses, sometimes falling with such force that the earth beneath it shakes. In this orchestrated choreography we humans become visible, only on occasion, dwarfed by the magnitude of the disaster we have created.
Video Still, Cull, Five Channel Video Installation
CULL sits nestled within the wider, ongoing project Fire Complex that Kögelsberger initiated after the Castle Fire destroyed 174000 acres of Sequoia National Forest, California, including an estimated 14% of the world Giant Sequoia population. Fire Complex aims to raise momentum and resources for the regeneration of these forests. The artworks of Fire Complex were originally exhibited on billboards, directly becoming agents in the public realm. This is a project that communicates a universal emergency and sets about making a difference for the future.
It involves a collaborative community-based replanting project that to date has put over 6500 new trees in the ground. This aspect of the Fire Complex was developed in collaboration with USDA Forest Services, Cal Fire, Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, the communities of Sequoia Crest, Alpine Village and Cedar Slope and with the help of volunteers from the Rotary Club, as well as local schools. The work has been developed with the support of Newcastle University, Alchemy Media (USA), Standard Vision (USA) and Buildhollywood (UK) and has been exhibited in the UK and across Los Angeles.
Cull, 5 channel video, Los Angeles, 2022 “It is such an honour to join this amazing list of artists that have previously received this award. I hope it will be yet another push for the much-needed acknowledgment of the urgency of the situation in our forests, the damage we have caused and the pressing need to do something about it.” “Spending most of a year in the burn area of the Castle Fire, is like seeing the climate crisis being made visible on a daily basis. In the UK we may think wildfires as a remote problem, but we are all in some way responsible. We need systemic change, but we can’t wait for systemic change to happen.” “The loss of our cabin was devastating, but it fades in relation to the loss of the forests and the amazing ecosystem they housed. It takes a short time to rebuild a home, but it will take over 2000 years for the trees that we planted to reach the size of the giants that have burned.” For further information about Kögelsberger’s project Fire Complex click here or go to @fire_complex Uta Kögelsberger Kögelsberger’s work has been exhibited at the Vincent Price Museum, Los Angeles, Northridge Galleries, Los Angeles, as part of Art Night, London, the Brighton Photo Biennial, Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool, Spacex, Exeter, Southwark Park Galleries, London, the Architectural Association, London, the Barbican, London, Laurence Miller Gallery, NYC, and the Glassell Project Space MFAH, Houston amongst others. Her award-winning photographic essays have been published in Wired, Esquire, GQ and American Photography. Her work is held in public and private collections including the MFAH (Museum of Modern Art Houston) and the LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum). |
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