Tree Talks: Populus Tremuloides (Spring)
Location: Kenosha Pass, Colorado, USA
Date: June 5, 2022
Time: 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. MT

The third of four seasonal talks organized by artist Ben Kinsley focused on understanding the Quaking Aspen tree. The Spring talk features lectures by guest speakers De Lane Bredvik, Jaime Kopke, and Walt Pourier (Oglala Lakota).

Populus tremuloides (Spring Series)

JUNE 5, 2022
Kenosha Pass, Colorado

Jaime Kopke is a certified Forest Therapy Guide, trained by the Association of Forest and Nature Therapy Guides and Programs (ANFT). She has worked designing public programs at museums and libraries for almost a decade, and is also a practicing artist, focusing on work that intertwines the boundaries between people and the natural world. In her years spent producing public programs, she has seen a deep desire from people to re-connect—with one another, their passions, but also with something bigger than themselves. Forest therapy provides a doorway for people to tap into a greater sense of being—through nature connection emerges cultural repair.

Populus tremuloides: Jaime Kopke

JUNE 5, 2022
Kenosha Pass, Colorado

Walt Pourier is Oglala Lakota from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He currently lives in Denver, Colorado where he is the Creative Director/CEO of Nakota Designs Advertising Design & Graphics and Executive Director/Founder of the Stronghold Society, a nonprofit dedicated to instilling hope and supporting youth movements through Live Life Call To Action Campaigns. Through his fine art, graphics, brand identity, and many creative movements he supports, Walt’s focus is to share messages of hope, inspiration, and healthy ways of life. Speaking to the importance of Indigenous Knowledge in all we do and this movement being led from a 7th generation Native American youth perspective. His outreach work, through youth movements, language revitalization, suicide prevention, ending domestic violence, defending childhood initiatives, sustainable housing, and healthy food distribution has reached many communities.

Populus tremuloides: Walt Pourier

JUNE 5, 2022
Kenosha Pass, Colorado

De Lane Bredvik is a Colorado installation artist who holds a Master of Architecture degree from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Fine Art and a Bachelor of Art in Honor’s Art History from Southern Methodist University. After working in the field of Architecture, Bredvik became increasingly drawn to the ephemeral process of feeling, thinking, and understanding that provide the structure for creating experience. His work focuses on raising awareness of social and environmental issues, with current projects investigating quantum physics, consciousness, and cognition.

Populus tremuloides: De Lane Bredvik

"Tree Talks" is an ongoing project by artist Ben Kinsley focused on understanding trees from a multitude of perspectives, one species at a time. 

The inaugural series "Populus Tremuloides" focused on quaking aspen, the most widely distributed tree in North America. Once per season, from October 2021–August 2022, the public was invited to gather within a grove of quaking aspen at Kenosha Pass, Colorado to hear lectures by experts from diverse fields—ranging from ecologists to poets—who each shared their knowledge of the tree. The sounds of these gatherings were recorded using a variety of microphones to capture human voices, scientific information, poetic and metaphysical ideas, and the sounds of the aspen and other flora and fauna of the landscape. 

The full talks are provided here. 

"Tree Talks: Populus Tremuloides" was produced by Black Cube Nomadic Art Museum and culminated in the release of a limited edition lathe cut vinyl record and publication. The record is available for purchase via the Black Cube shop (link below).