Country diary: For the beloved Ash Dome, death is not the end | Anita Roy
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- David Nash planted a ring of 22 ash trees in 1977 in a small woodland belonging to his father in Blaenau, Wales, creating the living sculpture known as the Ash Dome after becoming disillusioned with the London art scene.
- Ash dieback fungus, which had not yet reached the site a decade ago, has since turned the Ash Dome into what the author describes as "an elephant's graveyard," with most trunks ailing and dead branches piled at the center.
- Nash has accepted the fungus as "a natural element" of the conceptual artwork, saying the piece is outdoor sculpture that must be "of its place," and so he refused attempts to save the trees.
- Nash planted a ring of 22 oak trees around the dying ashes seven years ago; the oaks are now strong and healthy but not yet ready to be fletched and pruned into shape, a task Nash has said belongs to his sons and successors.
- The Ash Dome was once so culturally prominent it featured on a BBC Four ident, and Nash originally said the work was "aimed at the 21st century" — a span now shadowed by what the piece terms "a fracturing climate."
- Roy frames Nash's response as "an act of creativity and grace," writing that the Oak Dome is already coming and that it is "impossible to stay heartbroken" in the face of his decades-long practice of shaping rather than forcing natural processes.
Why it matters: The Ash Dome is a rare, named piece of public-facing conceptual art being reshaped in real time by climate and disease, and Nash's choice to let the original die and graft a successor oak ring onto it turns the loss into the next work. The piece also hands a stewardship question to Nash's sons and whoever inherits the Welsh woodland, making the artwork a multi-generational commission rather than a single artist's object.
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