During 2007 I uncovered a "lost" Sculpture Trail around the villages where I live - Near and Far Sawrey, Cumbria. I collated as much information as I could get together and published a small guide to it which is distributed throughout FRED, the Cumbrian Arts Festival, by the local shop: Sawrey Stores. This work relates to my interest in found sculptures and paintings.
“I enjoy encouraging people to look at the world in new and interesting ways. Much of my work is about taking the mundane and placing it in the context of the art world to see how it looks there. It's my belief that one of the few things artists can successfully do is re-present the world to their viewers so that they can see the world anew when they return to it.”
Eric Robson kindly recorded an audioguide for the trail which can be downloaded by right-clicking your mouse and "Saving As" here.
Download a PDF of the leaflet here.
After this was seen in FRED 2007, I was commissioned to uncover a similar set of sculptures at Bourne End, Bedfordshire. Find out more about it here.
01: "Home From Home"
Lucas Smith (Born Dorking 1960)
Sadly these few planks are all that remain of a scale model of the Parthenon created by Smith as a tribute to the Athenian society on which all Western Civilisation is based. Smith tends to create classical works that relate to civilisation's roots. Sometimes he dons a toga and recites Socratic text.
The piece here was a wooden version of the Parthenon and remained unpainted. It was designed to be almost hidden, much like the idea of society's history. It's easy to forget how Greek ideas of justice, self-reliance and democracy underpin much of our world.
02: "Homage to St Francis"
Harold Burns (Born Stockport 1920 - Died Perugia 2004)
Unusually for an artist, Burns had a first career as a monk. He was drummed out of the Franciscan order after making "obscene" drawings on a church wall.
As we can see from this cruciform piece, he never quite renounced his faith or his devotion to St Francis. These openings provide access for bats and birds to the loft behind, thus echoing the story of Francis preaching to animals and the birds.
Burns spent the last years of his life as a guest of a monastic order in Perugia, where he died peacefully in 2004.
03: "My Tree"
Penny Arancho (Born Santander 1962)
Arancho is an Anglo-Spanish artist who, in the first part of her career, used simple naming techniques to claim objects and events that were otherwise considered public or unowned in any conventional sense.
The artist's signature has long been a sign of provenance in the art world and Arancho here uses it both as a sign of ownership and as a sign of the tree being her creation. In effect she simultaneously stakes a claim to and gives away the tree, presumably to us as well as to birds and other animals.
Since this piece, Arancho has tried to introduce her own currency in Barcelona but with no success.
04: "For Sawrey, Near and Far"
Jeep and Co (George Morecombe and Jennifer McCartney) (Born 1960 and 1962 respectively, both in Leeds)
Jeep and Co were commissioned to produce a sculpture that would "benefit the community in an effective way". This extremely tight brief resulted in them simply designing and building this bridge. It makes this whole trail accessible in one easy journey.
The straightforward design means the bridge is easily repaired by local carpenters, thus avoiding some of the issues that blight other sculpture trails that fail to negotiate maintenance strategies.
They have since produce bridges and walkways all over the world, most famously the "sky-swagger" in Sao Paolo.
05: "Mythic Door #7 aka Where To Now, My Dear?"
Jane Shannon (Born Dublin 1958)
"There are things known, and there are things unknown, and inbetween there are doors."
This plain and seemingly abandoned door was placed here by Shannon while she was working with ideas relating to mythology and legend. Like the wardrobe in the Narnia novels the door is designed to act as a conceptual bridge between two worlds.
Shannon now works as a set designer in the film industry.
06: "Tempus Fugit "
Jason Gottlieb-Lewis (Born 1972 Berlin)
This piece is only now coming to maturity - much like a fine wine. Although the logs are collapsing slowly (it was originally a pyramid, but logs can go missing), that was part of Gottlieb-Lewis' intention. The moss growing on the logs demonstrates nature's own clock. Each year a further thickness is added.
Since this piece was created Gottlieb-Lewis has returned to his native Berlin and now makes organic sculptures along the line of the old Berlin Wall. He deliberatley doesn't get permission and he records how long they last before being removed by the agents of democracy.
Each year the artist returns and photographs the piece with a view to producing a time lapse film sometime in the future.
07: "Blue Line"
Unknown Artist
Although nothing is known about this work or the artist who placed it here, "Blue Line" has become a favourite. It seems significant that the artist has chosen a colour that stands out from its surroundings. The pipe draws a line from the relatively remote farming area towards the residential part of the village below.
We can safely assume that the artist was keen to reference Kandinsky's notion of "taking a line for a walk" in a new, original and very literal way.
Neatly, the piece also has a functional side as the farmer has employed the pipe for field drainage.
08: "Blanket"
Ernest Nicholas (Born Welshpool 1942)
Here we have a seemingly abandoned piece of farm machinery, but in fact the artist has used the machinery (indeed obselete and from the local farm), to make a subtle and resonant point.
By placing the metal links over the rock and grass, Nicholas alludes to the way farm practices have shaped the land around here (and indeed, throughout the country), and how eventually nature will overtake the intervention of humanity as the grass will grow over the metal and reclaim it.
Nicholas' work tends to be pessimistic in outlook when seen from humanity's point of view, though he denies that saying "people may be under threat, but the world will carry on. We'll pass just like the dinosaurs and something more wonderful will replace us."
09: "Yellow Drawing"
Yamada Taro (Born 1970 Tokyo)
Japanese artist Yamada Taro originally came to Sawrey to volunteer at Hill Top - the Beatrix Potter property in the village - but stayed on to make large paintings in yellow on the paths. Not realising he was actually operating illegaly he was mortified when told. Consequently he smashed up all the drawings (which were of names in large Japanese Script - this one was "mountain" in Kanji script (see below).
All that is left now is the coloured asphalt. It is my pleasure to reinstate it asa feature of the Sawrey Sculpture Trail.
10: "To The Stars"
David "Buck" Tufnel (Born Vancouver 1938)
This is all that remains of an organ-like structure that stood upright for about three years. Eventually the sheep rubbing up against it knocked it over and the rest was removed for health and safety reasons.
Tufnel was originally associated with the "proto-brutalist" movement that flowered briefly in British Columbia in the 1970's. They famously fell apart acrimoniously when Tufnel - a leading light in the group - declared himself "bored of metal". This piece demonstrates that this attitude was only temporary.
Tufnel has become notorious for sculptures that are dangerous to the public. He is allegedly uninsurable nowadays and consequently his work is rarely seen. We should consider ourselves fortunate to see at least a shadow of one of his pieces.
11: "Arch"
Simon Coltrane (Born Salford 1958)
Sadly all evidence of Coltrane's piece has been removed. At this junction of pathways was once a large willow and paper archway. It resembled the Arch of Constatine in Rome but onto its sides were drawings depicting the artist's life.
The Arch is no longer here because it never really survived the first winter. The paper wasn't really waterproofed and the underlying willow structure wasn't strong enougbh to survive beyond the forst winter. It was removed about ten years ago.
Since this piece Coltrane has made a name for himself making other large paper structures, but mostly works in North America. He produced an arch for the Superbowl in 1998.
12: "Sentinel Number 1 "
Sandeep Singh (Born Delhi 1965)
Singh is an Indian artist who worked for three years in the UK on an exchange probramme. He spent a good deal of his time locating iconic views and photographing them with an old Box Brownie camera bought in Camden Market.
When he reached Cumbria, and specifically the view of the Langdale Pikes as seen from this small oucrop he was bowled over, much in the way Alfred Wainwright had been at Orrest Head years before when he saw his life's work laid out before him.
To memorialise his reaction Singh took a cast of this rock and has since remade it in front of other iconic views around the world. He often gilds them to mark them as special. This, however remains the original and best.
