Four Artists and A Nature Reserve

17/11/2010 by James.

Yesterday saw the launch of the four installations at College lake, and a great morning it was too. Lovely to be able to share our finished work after beavering away on it these past few months.

I thought I’d add some images of the other three artists’ work here now that I’ve had a chance to see it first hand. Before I start, here’s a nice photo of the four of us outside one of the hides -

First up is Martin Prothero -

‘Martin Prothero is an artist exploring our human relationship with the natural world. He does this by totally immersing himself in a place: living in one location to fully experience it as an integral part of the natural ecology, not as a human visitor’

These slightly blurry images don’t really do the work justice, but hopefully give an idea of what Martin has installed in his hides - glass plates which have been covered in carbon and then left for animals to walk across and leave their marks - beautiful.

This one is patterned with hundreds of little mouse prints

Insect and Badger Prints

Lynda Cornwell’s work (www.lyndacornwell.co.uk) at College Lake explores the way that birds see, using paintings of ultraviolet markings to show details that are not normally visible to the human eye, and prismatic film on the hide’s windows that illuminate these markings with rainbows.

The rainbows also followed me out of the hide and onto the nettles outside when I  opened the door - I think Lynda’s research and the resulting installation is a really interesting example of art/science crossover.

And the last of the other three artists is Stu McLellan (www.stumclellan.co.uk) -

“I’m a painter, illustrator and creative workshop leader, with a whole lot of other experience in between, including therapeutic horticulture, stints in offices and warehouses, on an organic farm, volunteering in an ecohome and sitting in a toll booth between England and Wales - some of which were opportunities for doodling on an unprecedented scale. “

Stu’s installation uses hand drawn imagery in a graphic novel style to explore the past, present and future of the reserve, adding detail, visual interest and humour to the inside and outside of the hide.

Outside… and inside

 I love these little details

And then there is me, I’ve put plenty of images of my work in progress as the project went along, but here’s some of it in situ and being interacted with by everyone at the launch event.

I’m sure you’ve got the message by now, its a lovely mix of work, responding to the same environment in very different ways.

And apparently its not going to stop there either. Alistair from Outdoor Culture, who put the project together, is going to be working with a photographer and a poet to create a publication from their creative response to the reserve, so keep an eye out for that too - www.outdoorculture.com

Posted in other art, College Lake Residency, events, environmental issues, projects, me & my work | Print | No Comments »