An Internationally recognised artist and photographer, Yan Wang Preston has opened an exhibition at the Salford Museum and Art Gallery.
Yan Wang Preston created the project, Memory Keepers around just one 300-year-old sweet chestnut in the RHS Garden in Bridgewater, alongside 300 stories written by people from Salford and around the world.
She said: “I’m hoping this project can be another tree, a tree of connections, there are so many people and we are now connected because of this project. I’m hoping we can grow, give out, and create a legacy.
“It’s been two years, a very intense journey, because for me this is not a very long project but I had a lot of help, so today to see this here, and see the people here liking it, it makes me feel relieved.”
Yan said she felt ‘relieved’ to get the project over the line.
The prize-winning photographic artist won the 2023 Royal Photographic Society’s Environmental Responsibility Award. Her works include ‘Mother River’, a photographic series documenting the entire 6,211km length of China’s Yangtze River. Quite a contrast to just one tree in the RHS Garden Bridgewater.
She said: “Nowadays I quite prefer just working with one tree.
“You can see plenty of beauty, plenty of complexities, plenty of politics right at your doorstep, and the beauty of working on one tree so close to me is that I can visit it.”
The project has been done in collaboration with The University of Salford, the RHS Garden Bridgewater and Open Eye Gallery.
Lindsay Taylor, Director of the University of Salford Art Collection said: “I’ve loved working with our partners at RHS and Open Eye to develop the OFFSHOOT project over the last three years. We are so lucky to have RHS Garden Bridgewater in our city and to be able to work with both the staff and the site.
“This exhibition celebrates one tree. But it also celebrates people and creativity. Yan has been inspired to push the boundaries of photography and her own practice.’
Dan Atherton from the RHS Garden Bridgewater has also endorsed the project.
“Bridgewater is a really important space within Salford, but it’s maybe not the most accessible space all the time, so we were really keen to have a creative commission to look at new audiences, bring new people into the garden, but also take the garden to the people.
“I think this is the first time that this has happened in the truest sense. Our garden is a beautiful space, bringing it into Salford, and now it’s accessible in a different way through the amazing lens that Yan brought to the project is an amazing piece of work.”
The exhibition has no entry fee for all visitors and is available to visit at the Salford Museum & Art Gallery until February 28 2027
