The oldest of the Ancient Bristlecone Pine trees are over 5000 years old.  Their longevity is due in part to the harsh environment they grow in, owing to extremes of temperature and precipitation their annual growing season can be as short as one month.  The trees grow and die slowly, and even once finally dead their trunks remain upright- slowly eroding in the wind. 

Just a few steps away is a wooden structure housing a film Bristlecone by Rebecca Birch, shot on location in Big Pine, California: home of the world’s oldest trees. The shack is built on a small green space outside, modelled upon the workshop on one of the characters in the film. On first impression the piece suggests environmental issues, but on closer inspection the fifty-minute film is not merely about a particular landscape but how we discuss it and how landscape can filter into our being. We are taken on a journey, reminiscent of the work of the author W G Sebald where stories seem to unfold randomly, linking up by chance and where no singular truth is possible. The artist has already formed relationships with locals who have added their own stories, creating an interactive launch pad for the continuation of the project, involving Margate as a connective location. Rhizomatic in Deleuzian terms, it fuses the feel and experience of this diverse arts festival and leaves one in anticipation of 2009.Jessika Worrall on Bristlecone in Margate Rocks, a-n Magazine June 2008

Located within its own wooden cabin, Rebecca Birch’s Bristlecone (2007) explores the community of people living in the vicinity of Ancient Bristlecone forest in California. The conversations with residents from spiritualists to forest rangers give a sense of place – interestingly, and somewhat titillatingly, while the film is about these trees, we are never given a glimpse of them and only experience them through other people’s accounts. Justine Gaunt on Bristlecone in Wildwood, Project Space Leeds, a-n Interface, November 2007