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With the Forest
(2019)
Working with the forest was a concept devised in April 2019, during a week-long artist residency in the Forest of Dean and along the Sculpture Trail. During the residency 8 artists lived and worked in collaboration, taking part in a series of experiential workshops, field trips, discussion sessions and exploratory ramblings. The intention was to consider what it means to make art with a forest rather than in a forest or about a forest.
Healing, broken Oak tree branch wrapped in biodegradable string in the Forest of Dean, 2019
Utilising the natural surroundings of the Forest of Dean, in the hope to bring attention to our natural world and current climate crisis, Healing is an artwork that became a part of the land, not to disrupt it in any way, but for art and environment to be one, free to simply be found.
Considering, not only how the initial work is made and the outcome of the physical piece, my ambition was to take art outside, for all to see, in the natural elements, free to alter over time and become as much a part of the landscape as the trees and earth itself. My curiosity was to discover how Healing would continue to operate within the natural space.
Healing and other experimental works I produced in and around the Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail elicited questionings such as: at what point does this stop being my artwork and become part of the forest itself? How will an audience encounter the work and will this alter the dynamic between the viewer, the artwork and the environment?
All With the Forest photography with thanks to: Giles W. Bennett
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