AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN

By the late 17th century, the British had completely deforested their own land and began harvesting and exporting eastern white pines from colonial New England. In order to provide masts for their massive navy of wooden ships, King George III laid claim to any white pine measuring 24 inches or more in diameter in 1691 and any white pine measuring 12 or more inches in 1722, marking them with the “King’s Broad Arrow,” a series of three hatchet slashes. The Pine Tree Riot was an act of resistance against British royal authority undertaken by settlers colonizing the unceded land of the Wabanaki, N’dakina, and Pennacook Peoples, in what is now known as Weare, New Hampshire, on April 14, 1772. Nearly two years before the Boston Tea Party, surveyors attempting to enforce the laws were severely beaten by colonists who disguised themselves as Native Americans, sinking their boats, and whipping them with long pine branch poles. To the settlers on stolen land, the pine tree became a symbol of resistance to colonization and a desire for independence.

An Appeal to Heaven includes a watercolor screen monoprint created with branches of white pine from Saugatuck, Michigan; documentation of a ritual performed less than 20 miles from the site of the Pine Tree Riot in Bradford, New Hampshire along with a handmade flag; risograph prints of the King’s Broad Arrow, each of which has been anointed with a drop of white pine essence; and branches of white pine that fell during a storm at my mother’s suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania home in the summer of 2024. It was exhibited at SPACE in 2025 alongside Julia Arredondo: Just Passing Through.