Lelia Henry : Conversations with Trees

This exhibition presents a series of charcoal drawings of trees influenced by the research of Canadian forest ecologist Suzanne Simard. Simard’s discoveries about the intelligence and social behaviour of trees—their ability to communicate, support one another, and even recognise kin—provide the foundation for this series. Simard’s work reveals that trees communicate, share nutrients, and cooperate—behaviours once thought to belong only to humans—through underground networks of fungi. Her research suggests that forests are social systems, where individual trees act with an awareness of and care for one another. 

These drawings focus on the visible forms we encounter every day: trunks, branches, and canopies that stand as quiet presences in our shared environments. Each drawing treats the tree as an individual with its own character. Some appear resilient and upright; others lean, twist, or seem to gesture toward each other. Using the subtleties of charcoal, Lelia explores how human traits can be seen in the forms of trees, reducing each image to its essentials, while maintaining a sense of life and movement.

The works do not attempt to anthropomorphise nature in a sentimental way. Instead, they ask what it means to recognise familiar emotions and gestures in non-human forms. By doing so, the drawings encourage a shift in perception: from seeing trees as background objects to recognising them as beings that share something of our own experience.

In this exhibition, the forest becomes a mirror for human presence — silent but expressive, individual yet collective.