Ai Weiwei’s newest public artwork is appearing nightly in downtown Los Angeles, carrying the image of an ancient English tree into one of America’s largest and most densely built metropolitan areas. “A Tree,” a short animation developed from the artist’s first drawing in approximately 50 years, is being shown at 8:26 p.m. local time on the Standard Vision screen at 900 W. Olympic Boulevard through Sept. 9.

The Los Angeles presentation is part of a coordinated public-art project organized by CIRCA in collaboration with Factory International. The work is also screening each evening in London and Seoul, allowing audiences in three global cities to encounter the same image outside a museum, gallery or ticketed event. In Los Angeles, the placement near L.A. Live turns a commercial-scale digital display into a brief space for reflection amid traffic, entertainment venues and downtown development.

Weiwei created the underlying drawing during a June 21 visit to the Major Oak in Sherwood Forest, England. The tree, traditionally associated with the Robin Hood legend, is believed to be roughly 1,200 years old. CIRCA said Weiwei traveled there after reports that the oak had been declared dead and sat beneath its branches on the summer solstice, producing a sketch after decades away from drawing as a primary medium.

CIRCA subsequently transformed the image into a moving animation. Rather than reproducing the physical tree as a straightforward landscape study, the project presents it as a witness to centuries of human activity. The organization describes the work as a meditation on endurance, remembrance and the histories held within landscapes and material objects.

The project also connects to Weiwei’s family history. His father, the Chinese poet Ai Qing, wrote the poem “Trees” in 1940 during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The poem imagines trees that appear separate above ground while remaining connected through their roots, using the natural world to evoke solidarity and shared humanity during conflict. “A Tree” extends that image into a contemporary public setting shaped by environmental loss, political division and technological media.

Weiwei’s decision to use large public screens is significant. Outdoor digital displays are normally designed to capture attention for advertising or entertainment. By inserting a slowly unfolding image of an old tree into that environment, the project interrupts the usual pace of urban visual culture. It also makes the work available to pedestrians, commuters and nearby residents who might not intentionally visit a contemporary-art institution.

The installation arrives as researchers, educators and mental-health professionals continue to examine climate anxiety, a broad term for distress associated with existing or anticipated environmental change. It can include worry, grief, anger, helplessness or fear about disasters and the planet’s future. Specialists generally caution against treating all climate concern as a disorder; anxiety may be a rational response to recognized risks. It can become more serious, however, when it consistently disrupts sleep, concentration, relationships, work or education.

An American Psychological Association article published in 2025 cited a survey of 15,793 U.S. residents ages 16 to 25 in which 85% reported being at least moderately worried about climate change. Nearly 58% said they were very or extremely worried, while 42.8% said climate change affected their mental health. More than 38% reported that their feelings about the issue negatively affected daily life.

An archived Columbia Climate Conversations panel offers one model for responding to those emotions through art and civic participation. The discussion, titled “Using Art and Storytelling to Confront Climate Anxiety,” examined how climate change shapes mental health, media, artistic work and activism. Rather than presenting hope as simple optimism, the panel focused on creative practices that acknowledge distress while helping people find connection and agency.

The participants approached the issue from different disciplines. Chicago-born essayist and poet Rasheena Fountain discussed environmental justice and the importance of bringing Black experiences into environmental storytelling. Fountain has worked with organizations including the Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Audubon Society and founded Climate Conscious Collabs to encourage relationships between Black communities, media and environmental organizations.

Visual artist Taylor Yingshi brought a perspective centered on memory, history and cultural heritage. Filmmaker Tracy Rector, whose work has highlighted Indigenous and other underrepresented voices, contributed decades of experience in community organizing, education, film production and arts curation. Their participation underscored that climate communication is also a question of whose experiences are recorded, which communities are visible and how cultural memory is preserved.

Clinical psychologist Wendy Greenspun addressed the emotional dimensions of the crisis. Greenspun, a board member of the Climate Psychology Alliance–North America, has conducted workshops for mental-health professionals, climate activists and university students. She has also facilitated climate cafés, group forums in which participants can discuss ecological grief and distress without being required to debate scientific evidence or immediately propose solutions.

The panel’s emphasis on storytelling reflects a broader challenge for climate communication. Scientific reports can document rising temperatures, disaster risks and emissions trajectories, but data alone may not help people process loss or imagine a constructive role for themselves. Art can provide emotional language, reveal overlooked experiences and create shared symbols. It can also reach audiences that may disengage from conventional political or technical messaging.

Hope, in this framework, is not a claim that environmental damage will automatically be reversed. It is a practice tied to participation. Joining a local organization, creating work that documents community experiences, supporting disaster preparedness, contacting elected officials or contributing to neighborhood resilience projects can give concern a practical direction. Collective activity may also reduce isolation by showing people that their fears are shared and that responses do not depend on individual lifestyle choices alone.

Artistic engagement is not a substitute for emissions reductions, climate adaptation, emergency planning or accessible mental-health care. Public officials and large institutions still determine many of the policies and investments that shape climate risks. People experiencing severe or persistent distress may also need professional support. The value of cultural projects lies in helping audiences remain emotionally present and publicly engaged while those larger systems are contested and changed.

In Los Angeles, “A Tree” makes that argument without presenting a policy platform. A centuries-old oak, drawn by an artist known for examining power, displacement and historical memory, appears briefly each night on a screen built for the speed of contemporary city life. Its movement from Sherwood Forest to an American streetscape suggests that ecological loss is never entirely local. The Columbia conversation supplies the complementary message: grief can be recognized honestly while creativity, solidarity and action keep it from becoming the final word.