Oxygen

"A chorus of living things sings to the woman: If your mind were only a slightly greener thing, we’d drown you in meaning. — Excerpted from The Overstory by Richard Powers
Sometimes when it’s cold and damp I have difficulty breathing. In my world I am acutely aware trees are inseparable from life itself. Looking up into the leafy canopy of a tree gives me hope. Resting my face against its bark makes me calm.
In this twelve-minute video, the shutter and aperture of the camera mimic the action of the leaves of a maple tree on a bright and blustery day in autumn.
Sadness, loss and despair mix uneasily with delight at the tree's fragile beauty. The colours range from rich luminescent green, through yellow and gold to orange, and on to the deepest reds and crimsons.
On the screen, shafts of sunlight appear and disappear as the breeze tugs at the ragged edges of leaves. The camera exposure system responds to these changes by shifting focus within the image.
Meanwhile we are reminded perhaps of the less visible process by which the leaves convert this light into oxygen. One large tree can provide a supply of oxygen for as many as four people in one day.
Composer Angelica Castello’s remarkable composition "f.Firefly nothing ll oxygen 2021" combines human voice, bird song and electronic sound in a musical composition that is both a subtle and delicately nuanced evocation of the natural world and a powerful reminder of the transitory nature of all living things."
(Chris Welsby)