In Hanging Trees, Andy Goldsworthy explores boundaries, an area of longstanding interest to the artist. He is also concerned with how farming shapes landscapes and changes the shape of the countryside. In advance of making this permanent work for YSP, he spent a lot of time researching the area and getting to know the land.

He became particularly interested in ha-has, a sunken boundary created to avoid interrupting the view. They were common in eighteenth-century landscaping and a number of ha-has still exist in the grounds where YSP now stands.

Goldsworthy chose Oxley Bank as the site for Hanging Trees because it is the dividing boundary between two separate areas of agricultural land. He said that “the tension between tree and wall is evocative of the historical tension between a forested landscape and one which is farmed. A field, cleared of trees, is the site of a battle that has occurred between a farmer and the land”.