Tom Wright

Did David Cameron have a PR agenda when he swore on the radio this week? Quite possibly, he is a politician, behind those dead eyes, tiny cogs must be turning. It made for unnecessary headlines and ridiculous apologies so I was glad to escape to Regent's Park. The Treehouse Gallery could have no spurious agenda, I thought.

Perhaps it does not; perhaps it is just a source of whimsy and entertainment. Art and activities amongst the trees, who could not be enticed by such a thing? Mad groups of six year olds certainly seemed to be entertained. And yet six year olds can be entertained with a pair of spoons, adults on the other hand, will find little whimsy in the unwelcoming campsite.

We wandered about the structures for sometime but were never once greeted, engaged or inspired. A man was whittling and carving a log, I have always wanted to whittle and carve but this was not a class and there were no students, apparently we came on the wrong day for the activities. One of the actual treehouses promised a lofty, arboreal reading room. The approach was certainly steep but all that awaited was a shelf of books covered in bark and tarpaulin. I bet it sounded like a great idea, a library in the trees, until they realised it rains quite a lot.

I hope it is about more than whimsy because the fact that The Treehouse Gallery is happening at all is a great thing. We should be glad that we live in a city that encourages ambitious projects that look to give art back to communities. A glance at the program, though, quickly reveals more than just swings and wind chimes. Amidst the childrens' puppet making and drama workshops sit climate change symposiums, direct action seminars and lectures on organically structured societies in the process of globalisation. An agenda, how did we not see it before? Campsites, treehouses, flowers growing in old tyres, it all makes sense.

And yet, I'm pleased to see that it has one - it sorely needed it - the aesthetic was disappointing, if unfinished, and any sense of community in the centre of a Royal Park is, unsurprisingly, non-existent. Organic living and urban sustainability are important issues that a project like this should embody wholeheartedly. Unfortunately it offers no real solutions. Why not teach practical skills instead of lecturing then having a massage class?

Across London, The Dalston Mill gives us a beautiful and tangible solution to urban ecology and community. It throws the fuzzy world of treehouses in Regent's Park into quite sharp relief.

So maybe The Treehouse Gallery is a little like David Cameron: superficially cheery and hamster cheeked with a nice word or two to say about the environment but up close, not that attractive, shallow on the ideas and a bit of a tw*t.