Hebden Bridge artists commissioned to create installations for Slow Art Trail opening in the Yorkshire Dales this month

Added Friday, 12 September 2008

Hebden Bridge artists commissioned to create installations for Slow Art Trail opening in the Yorkshire Dales this month …

An environmental art trail featuring a series of public art installations will be unveiled in the Yorkshire Dales this month.A trip along the Slow Art Trail will be an ideal way to experience the landscape and contemplate the artworks at a slow and leisurely pace as well as enjoy a series of intriguing and thought provoking artworks which range from an interactive talking cactus to willow sculptures around fallen trees.

Three of the six professional artists selected to create work are based in Hebden Bridge, these are Jane Revitt, Andy Plant and Steve Gumbley.

Jane Revitt will create a piece called Banquet (furniture for an oak wood), her recent commissions include large-scale installations for The Royal Festival Hall in London, Revitt comments: “I have designed particular pieces of furniture for several indoor locations, and when I was asked to suggest something for the Slow Art Trail, thought it would be interesting to design a piece to be sited in woodland. Chairs encourage people to slow down and rest and I thought this would be appropriate on a Slow Art Trail.’

Andy Plant, who has a national reputation for his unique mechanical sculptures, theatrical commissions and large-scale clocks in public places, such as the lightning clock in Tyne and Wear, will create a giant recycled copper Talking Cactus which features local people talking about climate change.

Steve Gumbley’s From Horse Power to Hydrogen Power shadowgraph machine, which will explore the very topical theme of energy sources – a revolving carousel table will feature different forms of power plants, such as nuclear, chimneys and cooling towers, lit by a single halogen bulb the revolving piece will fill the space with moving shadows. He comments:
“Necessity is the mother of invention, and in the last few years it has become more and more evident that it's necessary to make our use of the worlds resources more sustainable. Last year I worked as part of a team installing wind turbines, and I learned a lot about the mechanics of capturing the energy of wind. My installation will be a mechanical meditation on sources of power.”

The opening weekend of 27th and 28th September, promises a host of additional surprises including a Slow Art Park and Ride bus which will run regularly between the Skipton Auction Mart and the Bolton Abbey Estate, passengers on the bus can expect impromptu poetry readings, storytelling and a guided tour of local alternative highlights such as the local landfill site.

The Slow Art Trail is based along the Bolton Abbey Estate’s Strid Wood ‘Cumberland Trail’ and Christmas Tree plantation. The ambitious pilot public art project, being developed by Chrysalis Arts, a Gargrave based public art company, will remain in place until the Sunday 19th October. Chrysalis Arts Director, Rick Faulkner comments: “The installations will range from pieces which tempt visitors to sit down and contemplate their surroundings to those which challenge perceptions about contemporary art-making in a traditional rural landscape. The works will highlight issues affecting landscape, agriculture, global warming and climate change. The artists will ‘inhabit’ the installations at certain times and engage in conversation with visitors about the works and the themes they explore.”

Other artists creating pieces are:

Laura Ellen Bacon, who creates woven, site-specific sculptures in willow and other coppiced materials. Her work is often commissioned for public spaces or private gardens and carries a theme of organic growth and nesting.
She says: “I am really excited about the prospect of using a fallen tree along the Cumberland Trail to produce a large installation, my designs have focused around the ‘tear’ in the canopy and the fall of the tree within the site”
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Kinetic sculptor, Johnny White will create Come in No 24 Your Time is Up a piece which is powered by water.

Stephen Bailey, will create a large scale map We are Here from litter found within the Strid Woods, he says
“Maps are interesting: not only do they help us to find our way, they also tell us something about how we see the world. For the Slow Art Trail I will be making a couple of large maps out of rubbish, the litter left behind by visitors to the National Park”.

Finally poet David Morley, who spent time in this area of the Yorkshire Dales in his youth, and has a distinguished career as academic and published poet will create poems about the wood and surrounding area which will be ‘written’ into the woodland trail in innovative and green ways. The Exhibition Centre will also host a series of his poems commissioned specially for this project

The Slow Art Trail opens on the weekend of 27 and 28 September and is open daily until the 13 October between 10am and 4pm, entry to the trail is free, but there is a parking charge for each car and visitors are encouraged to arrive using alternative forms of transport.

For more info about the trail please contact Chrysalis Arts tel 01756 749222, visit www.chrysalisarts.org.uk or email chrysalis@artdepot.org.uk