In Remembered Light, Brent Cole and Jacinda Russell examine the interconnectivity of trees by layering art history, arboreal and geological time, archaeological evidence, and glaciology through the mediums of sculpture, glass, and photography. Inspired by research conducted at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research and objects from its archives, their work asks how scientific data and personal stories can coexist in the same chronology.
The artists look closely at ghost forests, considering how dead and submerged trees can reveal more in absence than in life, and they treat fire and fungus as powerful mechanisms for renewal embedded in forest ecosystems. Their pieces reflect on the inherent poetry of sylvan worlds while confronting the reality of how small the human footprint is in deep time.
Themes of time, memory, and resilience
Cole and Russell highlight how trees, like people, carry traces of personal journey, with rings, scars, and growth patterns that mirror human experiences of change and resilience. Their work suggests that both trees and humans are etched by the passage of time, and that scientific measurements can hold emotional and autobiographical meaning alongside empirical data.
By weaving together ghost forests, glacial decline, and environmentally imperiled sites, the artists invite viewers to consider urgency versus geological time: how rapidly changing climates collide with the slow, patient record-keeping of trees, ice, and stone.
About the artists and their collaboration
Former colleagues in academia, Brent Cole and Jacinda Russell first connected in 2010 when Russell invited Cole to help reinterpret her “floating cake” series in glass. This early collaboration around material and metaphor grew into in-depth conversations, two-person exhibitions, and an ongoing partnership that now includes this project on trees and time.
Their shared affinity for water and aqueous environments led them to explore sites such as estuaries, glacial landscapes, and other fragile ecosystems. Over time, their mutual interests expanded to include specimen samples, celestial bodies, and arboreal time, all expressed through sculpture, glass, and photography.
Artistic approaches
Metaphor is a driving force in their practice. Cole’s work probes questions of personal navigation, asking how to represent experiences and perspectives that are secondary or tertiary to his own, and how to honor those vantage points in visual form. Russell’s work uses water—its presence and its absence—to explore connections between autobiography, scientific discovery, and the tension between urgency and the vastness of geological time.
Together, their collaboration offers a richly layered experience where art, science, and story converge, inviting audiences to reflect on what remains, what disappears, and what trees can teach about remembering across centuries.