Trees Are For Life, Not Just For Christmas

LUAP transforms a concrete unit in Wapping into a forest of discarded trees. The installation confronts the environmental cost of festive traditions and calls for more sustainable relationships with nature.

In early 2023, LUAP opens the year with Trees Are For Life, Not Just For Christmas — an immersive installation created in collaboration with WappArt & Music. Installed inside a stripped-back concrete unit, the space is filled with discarded Christmas trees collected after the festive season. Among them stands LUAP’s Pink Bear, quietly observing the forest in slow decline.

What begins as a familiar scene becomes something else entirely. Without decorations, lights or sentiment, the trees reveal their true condition — dry, browning, forgotten. The Pink Bear, often associated with introspection and emotional resilience, becomes a silent witness to the consequences of habit and overconsumption. The installation offers no judgement, only space to reflect.

LUAP’s practice often bridges mental health, the natural world and emotional presence. Here, that relationship deepens. The forest becomes a psychological space as much as a physical one, where themes of decay, responsibility and change are made visible.

According to The British Christmas Tree Growers Association, 8 to 10 million real Christmas trees are sold in the UK each year. A two-metre tree without roots sent to landfill produces around 16 kg of CO₂. If properly replanted or chipped, that number falls to just 3.5 kg.

Visitors are presented with these figures as part of the installation. The work does not offer a single solution, but encourages simple actions — choosing rooted trees, recycling wood, making sustainable choices part of familiar traditions.

In the United States, an estimated 33 to 36 million trees are harvested annually. In Europe, that number rises to 50 to 60 million.

The impact is global, but the project is rooted in a local effort to build awareness, spark dialogue and promote responsibility. After the exhibition closes, all trees are taken to proper recycling centres, reinforcing the message that small steps count.

Running from 17 January to 11 February 2023, Trees Are For Life, Not Just For Christmas invites the Wapping community and broader audiences to pause and reconsider the cost of tradition. LUAP continues to use his Pink Bear not only as a visual motif, but as a presence that asks us to see differently — to feel more deeply and act more consciously.