Magic hides in downtown Los Angeles. On view through summer 2022, A Forest for the Trees is an immersive art show created and directed by visionary artist Glenn Kaino, together with The Atlantic and Superblue, that inspires audiences to reimagine their relationship with the natural world.
Created in collaboration with Grammy-winning producer/musician David Sitek as part of the duo’s new audio project, HIGH SEAS, A Forest for the Trees offers a sensorial experience unlike anything that’s come before it. Spanning a 28,000-square-foot space in downtown Los Angeles, the show leads visitors on an hour-long journey through a surreal, magical forest. Filled with animatronic trees, interactive sound sculptures, and captivating illusions of fire that visitors can control with their hands, A Forest for the Trees relies on multi-sensory storytelling to reach its audience.
Over the last year, Glenn has worked with an interdisciplinary collective of artists, tribal leaders, and environmentalists to bring A Forest for the Trees to life. He notes:
“I have worked my entire career to build the tools and relationships that have allowed me to embark upon a project of this unprecedented scale and ambition, both conceptually and formally. Intergenerational problems of this magnitude require new thinking and new models about how we bring together traditional ecological knowledge and advanced technology. It is my hope that this show can provide inspiration into how to connect and contribute to some of the most pressing issues of our time, in a dynamic and exciting way that our audience can take home with them.”
Steeped in the histories of people close to the forest, A Forest for the Trees is inspired by The Atlantic’s ongoing writing on the natural world. That tradition began with the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who co-founded the magazine, and continued through the end of the 19th century, when John Muir made his case for the national parks in The Atlantic. Launched in 2021, The Atlantic’s contemporary editorial series “Who Owns America’s Wilderness?” considers the distant past and future of the American wild.
A Forest for the Trees is open to all ages; tickets are on sale through early September. For more information, please visit the project website here.
