David Cotterrell Appointed To Make A New Work
The Forest of Dean Sculpture Trust is delighted to have secured funding from the Gloucestershire Environmental Trust for the production of a new sculpture for the Trail, with the continued support of the Forestry Commission. Following the success of Echo by Annie Cattrell, launched last summer, David Cotterrell has been commissioned to begin his research for a new work, which will open to the public summer 2010. The research period is supported by the Forest of Dean District Council and Arts Council England.
“David is an installation artist working across varied media including video, audio, interactive media, artificial intelligence, device control and hybrid technology. His work exhibits political, social and behavioural analyses of the environments and contexts, which he and his work inhabit.” Most recently, after two years of negotiations between the Wellcome Trust, Imperial War Museum and Ministry of Defence, he was invited to observe the Joint Forces Medical Group at Camp Bastion in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. The outcome was a body of photographic and video work, reflecting upon the time lost between injury on the front-line and the awakening of the patient some hours later in a UK hospital. Earlier works include creating the Saltley Geyser - an inexplicable ‘geyser’ in the middle of a Birmingham suburb - which from May to August daily shot 500 litres of water in a column 30 metres high, drawing people out from their houses to meet and share the experience.
His plans for the Forest are likely to include landscaping, but that may change as his research progresses. Cotterrell is intrigued by the ex-industrial landscape of the forest, seeing it as “one of choreographed and manipulated tranquillity and contemplation.” Cotterrell is considering the use of ‘gabions’, used for military and land fortification, which he saw in Afghanistan. “I would like to investigate construction techniques, which could provide a structural addition designed to be readily appropriated by the forest environment and a platform to consider the contradictions between human manipulation of landscape and the natural passage of time.”
The Clearing by Colin Glen: A two-part work at both The Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail and at No.1 Middle St. Stroud. It is important to view both parts to gain a real appreciation of this work.
The Forest of Dean Sculpture Trust and the Forestry Commission are delighted to be hosting one part of this split-site sculpture, which is located on both sides of the River Severn in Gloucestershire. The Clearing, Colin Glen’s new work in partnership with The Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail, Jelf Projects and Stroud Valleys Artspace, creates an intriguing connection between two contrasting places, a former gallery space in a busy residential part of Stroud on the one hand, and the quiet stillness of a woodland glade in the Forest of Dean. The work acts as the starting point for a series of discussion events as part of Glen’s ongoing ‘in negotiation’ project, which encourages opinion, conversation and conflict as an essential element of critical process.
Placed in a clearing on the Sculpture Trail, the skeletal is constructed in a whitened timber framework that recreates the internal dimensions of the vacant gallery; whilst on the walls of the gallery space in Stroud hang photographs of views from the sculpture looking out into the surrounding woods. The artist says of the work “The Clearing releases the imagination to create an umbilical cord between the private contemplative space of an empty gallery and the nourishing otherness of the magical world of the Forest”.
Colin sees the work as being a ‘gift’ to photographers and anyone is welcome to use it as a model. We would be delighted to see any that you take.
download: press release the clearing
download: SITE programme
download: The Clearing worksheet for schools & families - projects based on The Clearing. Prepared by Rachel Shilston on behalf of the Sculpture Trust.
link to: SVA in Stroud
Critical Discussion: Colin Glen and Neville Gabie participated in an ‘in-conversation’ at Beechenhurst Lodge on Saturday 6th at 2pm. Both Glen and Gabie have made work on the Trail related to the concept of the ‘clearing’. Whilst Glen’s work manifests itself as a two-site work, one part of which has been located in a woodland clearing, Gabie’s work Raw has, through the action of its making, created a clearing in the woodland.
a few pictures of Colin’s talk:
Click here to read more about why these children are pushing Raw by Neville Gabie……..
Archive videos of our high-attendance after dark audio & video events
Echo by Annie Cattrell
Echo 2008
Annie Cattrell’s first public artwork, Echo is the latest fascinating addition to the Sculpture Trail. Hyper-real and hyper-virtual, it is absolutely landscape and absolutely not landscape. Cast from 310 million year old rocks, it evokes a sense of the subterranean - touch it and discover the detail with your fingertips.
Echo celebrates the life of Jeremy Rees, one of the Sculpture Trail founders, as well as our 21st anniversary.
The Forest of Dean is one of the most ancient and beautiful woodland areas in the country, with a fascinating history. The Sculpture Trail is a fantastic way of exploring the area as well as to gain an understanding of its industrial past.Previously an area of mine-workings, the forest has been transformed by sculptures made by international artists, including David Nash, Cornelia Parker, Ian Hamilton-Finlay and Neville Gabie. The artworks provide a unique encounter with site-specific sculpture in a wonderful forest environment. The Forest of Dean Sculpture Trust also host temporary events on the Trail, alongside commissioning new sculptures and working with communities.
22 years ago a vision by Martin Orrom sparked off the process - read it here
