Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
Reviewed by: Paul Stone
Nature Centre is the culmination of artist and writer Brownrigg's residency at Grizedale last year. As well as her own writings in response to this particular Lakeland forest location, it includes the work of different visual artists-in-residence from the last couple of years (including Samantha Clark, Marcus Coates, Claire Shoosmith and Calum Stirling) and documentary material from workshops by six local schools, and from Grizedale's own archives which date back to the start of the nineteenth century.
Much more than a summing up of the writer's own time at Grizedale, Brownrigg weaves together these disparate source materials into a document that exists as a piece of work in its own right, whether or not the reader has physically experienced Grizedale itself. With the stated aim to identify the gaps between people's ideals about nature versus the reality of that nature, the book's publication reflects the recent welcome change in what can be achieved in the realm of, for want of a better description, the sculpture park.
The last couple of years has seen a radical redefinement of Grizedale's artistic programme under Director Adam Sutherland, moving away from the (unquestionably popular) twigs-and-stones-in-a-clearing school of Andy Goldsworthy, to a much more challenging choice of artists and types of works (billboards, road signs, sound installations) that question the relationship and experience of the supposed unspoilt beauty of their location, both for the urban visitor and the local rural community.
That this process is not always a smooth one is reflected in the book by the inclusion of quotes from and references to local, national and art press coverage, as well as visitors and locals comments (including one particularly indignant postcard, reproduced in the book, to Sutherland from a local resident describing the work seen as 'pollution').
Brownrigg's writing, presented in a flowing and associative rather than literal manner, largely takes the form of lists and suggested courses of action we can take to negotiate these contradictions. Her great achievement is to encompass all these conflicting views and evidence within the one book, which she also designed, leaving space for the reader to formulate their own position.
Writer detail:
PAUL STONE
IS AN ARTIST, FREELANCE CURATOR AND PROJECT ORGANISER BASED IN NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE.
Venue detail:
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