Week 3 – The king has donkey’s ears

One day , the kings messenger called at the home of a widow.

“ The King has a special job for your son ,  he must come to see the king tomorrow” she was told.

The woman was very worried. Once a year the king summoned a barber to cut his hair. But no barber ever returned after his visit to the king. The widow’s son was a barber.

No one knew that the king had a terrible secret. He had very strange ears which actually  looked like ears of a donkey.  To hide them he needed to have a special haircut . Every barber who cut the king’s hair had been put to death immediately so that he could never reveal the kings terrible secret.

Happy New Year, welcome to the ‘Memory Palace of Trees’ project 2020. This is a shared collection of stories about trees. I am aiming to gather tales and information from people all over the world, not just here in China. Your story can be about any kind of tree, you might be a carpenter, an academic , a student who has just planted a tree, or someone who simply admires trees. Maybe your story is a memory from decades ago. It is your story. It can be as short as “ I love the Chestnut tree” for example but  please try to keep your story to less than 200 words if possible . Your story might make it into one of the weekly posts (there will be 52 of them! ). If you send me your story (let me know if you want to be referred to by your name  or an initial , pen name or kept anonymous.)   Each week throughout 2020 a story  or some kind of information on trees will be posted with either an artwork already made or perhaps your story will inspire me to make a new work!

Throughout the year 2020 I also will be engaging and learning from various people such as foresters, nature filmmakers, photographers, carpenters,  ethnic minorities,  reconnecting with communities such as Friends of Nature  and my old  Hiking buddies .

And so Week 1 artwork is called ‘Extend’ as the outreach for the project of “Memory Palace of Trees” begins.

‘The Memory Palace of Trees’ is an invitation to the public to participate in story telling about trees. Memory Palaces are places where journey , image and information work together to remember things you want to keep in your mind.