Deciphering Words in the Woods

"Ogham is Ireland's earliest form of writing. Dating from the fourth century, it is often affectionately called a tree alphabet. It is an archaic script using trees for letters. In Ogham, the characters were called feda trees or nin forking branches due to their shape. Astonishingly, this ancient alphabet was written from the roots up -- each character sprouting from a central line, like leaves on a stem or branches on a tree." Artist Katie Holten seeks to decolonize language and rewild the imagination by transforming letters into trees. Combining the ancient script Ogham with Irish and English, her Irish Tree Alphabet transforms words into an arboreal language of place and belonging.

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