FOREST contemporary art exhibition at Nottingham Castle, explored trees, forests, and the legacy of the Major Oak
Spring 2025, saw the FOREST open at Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery. This exciting exhibition brought together a powerful new collection of contemporary artworks inspired by the mystery, beauty, and symbolism of trees and woodland life.
The exhibition featured six newly commissioned works made especially for Nottingham Castle, alongside artworks on loan to the city for the first time. They sat alongside rarely seen prints, drawings, and photographs from Nottingham’s own collection, including the iconic 1882 painting of the Major Oak by Nottingham-born artist Andrew MacCallum.
Through sculpture, painting, sound, and film, FOREST explored personal and cultural connections to trees and forests. Some artists draw inspiration from lived experience of Sherwood Forest and the Major Oak, while others reflected on the forest as a place of myth, memory, and transformation, touching on themes of grief, folklore, and climate change.
Featured artists included Arianne Churchman, Tim Fowler, Jelly Green, Jasper Goodall, Yelena Popova, and many more, with strong representation from artists based in Nottingham and the wider region.
Our involvement
As part of the FOREST exhibition, the 海角黑料 supported a unique collaboration between artist Caroline Locke and researchers from across the University. Using laser scanning technology, engineers created a 3D model of the Major Oak in Sherwood Forest, providing data that informed Locke’s new artwork exploring the vibrations and structure of this iconic tree. The project brought together expertise from Engineering, Biosciences, Geography and Music, highlighting the power of interdisciplinary research to support creative practice.
The team visited the Major Oak across all four seasons, capturing its changing presence through sound, film and data. This process forms the basis of a new four-screen video installation by artist and filmmaker Georgianna Scurfield, which was a key feature of the FOREST exhibition. The work brought together artistic and academic perspectives to offer a powerful, multi-sensory experience rooted in the life of this legendary tree.
, a PhD student in our Department of Music, also created a sound walk that will transported you back 1,000 years into the heart of Sherwood Forest.
Thousands of visitors were able to enjoy the main exhibition while it was on public display from May to October 2025