by Yvette Martin, located 1986, reclaimed by the Forest 1987
Yvette Martin was Artist in Residence July to September 1986
Although, as anticipated, Yvette Martin’s Four Seasons proved vulnerable to the elements, during the four months of her residency over 8,000 people were able to appreciate the quality of her work and discuss it with her.
In an enclosed area beside the path, Yvette Martin created a series of four linked sculptures on themes connected with the four seasons. In the first space the trees were bent down to overshadow a pool and create a womb-like space - birth and spring. The second space had the tress bent back to suggest the opening of petals. The third space had giant boulder-like forms suspended between the trees - perhaps suggesting a giant seed pod and the fourth had the skeletal shapes of tree roots placed in a spine-like curve.
The subsequent seasons continued the theme of growth, maturity and decay, with the flowering forms of summer, the ripening seed pods of autumn and the skeletal vertebrae of winter.
The forest has already reclaimed its territory, and the work has long since disappeared.
“The first major discovery about the Forest of Dean, along with its sheer size, was its variety, not only in the type of trees grown, but also in the changes in gradient. Small hills, valleys, grassy glades, thick dark conifer plantations, bare-floored beech areas, and wild unaffected oaklands, punctuated by small ponds, streams and marshland. It took a second visit of four days to even begin to feel I was getting to know the forest.
The ideas grew purely from the experience of being in the forest. The first few days in residence were still needed to carry out more explorations. I wanted to do work that would somehow rewrite all these wonderful variations in a way that might represent `the forest’ as whole. The cycle of life from conception, emergence, growth, reproduction, maturity, decay and death was all around, and it was that inevitable cycle that seemed to epitomise the forest. After I had started the first sculpture and through many discussions with local people about the different seasons, I began to realise the connection of these growth cycles with the changes of the seasons.
The site had to be chosen carefully, as it was also to provide materials, wherever possible. As my project was not going to need more than one site along a path, I was lucky to find the particular sequence of sites used. The first site was slightly secluded, and gave one a feeling of protection. It had a marshy pool with rich, copper-coloured mud, and was protected from all sides by a small cliff face, banks and trees, with a natural enclosed canopy. The second site was very open in comparison, and you felt distinctly exposed. The trees were taller and more sparse and it was very boggy. The third site had good solid ground, with larger, quite dominant trees. It had an almost stage-like feel to it, and the sun lit up the centre. The fourth site by contrast was quite dark, secluded and cool on a mud and leaf.covered bank with a quiet feel. These sites perfectly fitted the sequence of the Four Seasons, with the cycle of life from Spring to Winter, from birth through maturity to death.”
Yvette Martin