Blued Trees is a project that challenges ecocide.<br/>It is about massacring the environment, and generational conflict.

Blued Trees, An Opera

In late October, Anita Rogers Gallery hosted Aviva Rahmani's Blued Trees (2015 - present), her collection of embedded dispatches from the front lines of ecological conﬂict. Rahmani presented excerpts from her Blued Trees opera with dancer Rishauna Zumberg, pianist and arranger Luka Marinkovic, and soloist Alison Cheeseman. Rahmani then moderated an international participatory streaming event to judge a fossil fuel executive and his wife for ecocide– what is the extent of liability?

In peer-reviewed publications and international exhibitions, she has strung connections between climate change activism, aesthetics, and sea level rise:

“In 1990, after a long career in California and New York, I bought a New England town dump, restored the land and made it my work base. This year, my entire studio building with all my life's work almost washed away with winter storms. My sense of urgency, to give art a voice has never been greater.”

Blued Trees was originally inspired by environmental activists, who asked her to create art to stop pipelines. Rahmani created a series of art installations in forest corridors where natural gas pipelines were proposed. She geolocated designated trees in an aerial pattern that corresponded to a copyrightable symphonic score of “tree notes” in 1/3-mile-long measures. Each tree was painted with a blue casein sine wave from the base to the canopy. Her project attracted international attention. In 2018, a Mock Trial granted her an injunction against further forest destruction by a hypothetical pipeline company. The trial inspired her opera-in-progress.

Just before the American presidential election, visitors were invited to immerse themselves in the questions that have driven Rahmani's practice; to decide outcomes for ecocide, view some of the Blued Trees and ‘Are We Lost’ prints, experience arias, and engage in an audience participatory event.

Blued Trees emerged from intimate knowledge that without imminent intervention, we may all drown in a world of dead forests. It was made possible in part through a grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, awarded in 2023, which supported Rahmani in the development of this body of work. Blued Trees in NYC was also made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

‘The Wife’s Lament’ performed by Aviva Rahmani.
October 30 2024, will be sung by soloist Alison Cheeseman, with an arrangement by Luka Marinkovich, and the dancer Rishauna Zumberg.

Blued Trees, was originally inspired by environmental activists, who asked Rahmani to create art to stop pipelines. She created a series of art installations in the proposed forest corridors where natural gas pipelines were proposed.

Rahmani geolocated designated trees in an aerial pattern that corresponded to a copyrightable symphonic score in 1/3-mile-long measures. Each tree was painted with a blue casein sine wave from the base to the canopy. Her project attracted international attention. In 2018, a Mock Trial granted her an injunction against further forest destruction by a hypothetical pipeline company. The trial inspired her opera-in-progress.

Press Release

Conception of Blued Trees, An Opera

The Blued Trees, An Opera emerged as a continuation of Aviva Rahmani’s copyrighted continental scale forest symphonic composition which she initiated in 2015. She witnessed a salvo in the most dramatic story of our times: the impunity of ecocide, when a corporation massacred her tree-notes, destroying her art to install their natural gas pipelines. After a 2018 mock trial for her legal suit, she took five years to assemble the performance team and realize her narrative vision. The opera preview was created in just three feverish months and was first performed in summer 2023.

An elderly woman with gray curly hair standing outdoors behind a tree painted bright blue, facing the camera with a serious expression. There is a rustic house, water, and forest in the background.

Tree in a forest with blue paint markings on the trunk, surrounded by green foliage and sunlight filtering through the leaves.

Rehearsal and Staging

Open Rehearsal - the Final Rehearsal Before the Performance the Following Day. August 25th, 2023, 8pm, Soapbox Gallery, 636 Dean Street, Brooklyn, NY.

Final review of staging elements for the August 25 and 26 open rehearsal and performance of Blued Trees at the Soapbox Gallery, NYC.

Performance

To view the full Performance video please contact Aviva Rahmani - ghostnets@ghostnets.com - for the password to access the video on Vimeo here.

Opera Performance - Audience Discussion about Ecocide and the Environment

August 26th, 2023, 8pm, Soapbox Gallery, 636 Dean Street, Brooklyn, NY

Four people on stage with music stands, a grand piano in the background, and microphones, performing or rehearsing in front of an audience.

The Human Drama

Blued Trees, An Opera is about ecocide and generational conflict brings together the human element of ecocide, the people and their decisions. Within the human drama is a court trial of the pipeline company executive being tried for his destruction, massacre, of trees, to build the pipeline.

A fallen tree with bare branches on a hilltop, with a clear blue sky and mountain range in the background.

People seated in a courtroom, attending a session at Jacob Burns Moot Court. Wood-paneled walls, a portrait of a man above the court sign, and blue flags are visible.

Synopsis

Gary, the CEO of a large energy corporation, has just learned about the legal case brought against him in an eminent domain dispute. The case involves forest property where he is planning to put in a natural gas pipeline. An experimental artist who made an installation on the property has pressed charges. Gary wins a round of the case, which will continue to be fought and appealed. Gary and his daughter, a young obstetrician, have become estranged due to differing beliefs, they see less and less of each other. He asks his daughter to meet him to discuss plans for her mother’s birthday. In the courtroom, the lawyer cross-examines the artist about the artist’s installation The Blued Trees Symphony and ecocide. Gary tells his lawyer and wife about his drastic decision to settle the case, to try to please his daughter. His wife expresses her concerns. Much later in the story, Gary meets with the artist in her garden. The wife is in a bubble.