In New York, a wooded forest has sprung up overnight in the urban jungle – this surreal stand of a 40-foot- tall grove in Manhattan’s Madison Square Park is the latest work of the artist and architect Maya Lin.

“Ghost Forest” takes its name from a devastating phenomenon. Large stands of trees are left dead by rising sea levels, saltwater infiltration and other environmental events caused by climate change. Yet, no one is aware of their death until the trees are cut down. The artist has “transplanted” 49 withered Atlantic white cedar trees from the Pine Barrens of New Jersey to downtown New York, hoping to wake people up to climate change and raise a sense of urgency.

The “Ghost Forest” has created a strong visual impact in Madison Square Park – the gray trees are in sharp contrast to the vitality of the park. Maya Lin’s installation emphasizes the brevity and vulnerability of the natural world. With her simple visual language, Lin has brought her vision as an artist and her agency as an environmental activist to this project.

The project also includes a soundscape. Through scanning a QR code, viewers can listen to the calls and songs of the endangered and extinct animals once native to the New York City area. The soundscape draws from the Macaulay Library sound archive of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. A series of public programs combining art with ecology are also planned throughout the run of the exhibition. The artist will invite climate activists, experts and the public to participate in wetland and forest restoration and other conservation work.