When Anne Waggot Knott discovered that many of Manchester’s residents don’t know where their drinking water comes from, she set about making work that laid bare the origins of the water that nourishes the city. In this blog, Anne shares the background to the creation of her artwork ‘Small Water’, which features in the See Here Now exhibition.
Cumbria’s water supply feeds and nourishes not only the immediate fells and surrounding region but great swathes of urban north west England. This may seem like a simple statement, but many people do not know about the origins of their drinking water, or what the journey entails.
The commoditisation of our water and its transport out of Cumbria to slake the thirst of the city starts to represent a very real threat to the human and the more-than-human.
When environmental change is happening at planet-wide scale, and in cumulative increments of time, we can be psychologically and culturally distanced from perceiving it ‘here’ and ‘now’. The exhibition … is a compelling effort to bring the meanings closer.
So begins the review of the See Here Now exhibition currently showing in the gallery at Grizedale Forest, written for ecoartscotland by Dave Pritchard, an independent consultant in environment, culture, heritage and the arts.
In this review, Dave highlights some of the work that particularly struck him when he visited. He also asks about what art and artists can or might ‘do’, and shares some questions that arise from this exhibition: If things feel urgent, does the art also need to be urgent, or might it paradoxically be slow? and: What might an exhibition, or individual artworks, urge others to do?
We recommend making a brew before you do – while you’re on that site you’ll almost inevitably want to delve deeper. Ecoartscotland is a rich resource, focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics and commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer, and research associate at Gray’s School of Art.
Huge thanks to Dave for the review.
This image from ‘Hakoto’ by Collins + Goto Studio is one of the pieces featured in Dave Pritchard’s review.
Header image shows Sea sediment pigments, created by Naomi Hart (more on this here)
The See Here Now exhibition is in full swing in the gallery of Grizedale Forest. What a week! A joyful install, with perfect weather.
The preview was buzzing, with 25 of the exhibiting artists celebrating the launch. We were welcomed by Hazel Stone, National Curator of Contemporary Art at Forestry England; and a fascinating hour of conversation with five of the artists; then the evening fell into full swing.
For now, here are some images of the exhibition and the preview. There’s more on individual pieces in a series of blog posts, and you can find out more about the See Here Now exhibition here.
SEE HERE NOW Art in a time of urgency, Grizedale Forest, Daily 10am-4pm, until June 8th.
Simon Hitchens’ durational day drawings are made in, of and about the landscape, the result of a particular set of conditions, in a particular place, over a particular span of time. His work 06.58 Carron Crag 19.10 Epoch was created in Grizedale Forest, and is being shown in the SEE HERE NOW exhibition. Read on for more.
The British Isles have a rich and varied geology, with rocks ageing from the present to some of the oldest on our planet. Each day these rocks get a little older as we too get older. To be able to comprehend the deep time of rocks is to a shine a light upon our own short lifespan and to begin to understand the transient but interconnected nature of what we share with the world.
For this exhibition I have made a durational-day-drawing of a specific rock found on the summit of Carron Crag in Grizedale: Silurian, aged 443-419 million years old. The process was simple: arrive at Carron Crag at least half an hour before dawn, giving me enough time to set up my collapsable drawing table and materials. For this drawing I bivvied on the summit of Carron Crag the night before to save me a long walk in before dawn, as the combined weight of my rucksack full of drawing kit, clothes for all weathers, food and drink etc. was considerable. Once the paper is on the surface of the table and I have placed my chosen stone (which I found the night before) upon the surface of the paper, I waited for the sun to rise.
Simon Hitchens at work, tracing the stone’s shadow from dawn to dusk.
As the sun rose in the east, casting a shadow of an ancient geological object to the west, I traced its shadow lines on the paper beneath. It took between two and two and a half minutes to complete the drawn shadow line – once this is completed, I immediately start drawing the next line, as the shadow itself has shifted a little due to the incessant rotation of planet earth beneath my feet. This process was repeated relentlessly until either a cloud obscured the sun, and there was no shadow to draw, or the sun dipped below the western horizon at the end of the day.
This is a process-based drawings made in, of and about the landscape, the result of a particular set of conditions, in a particular place, over a particular span of time. It records celestial time, geological time and human time as well as the weather patterns unique to that day and site: a meditation on time and space.
Even the solidity of rock and mountains given time, will eventually erode into nothing, echoing the transience of human life.
I have chosen to exhibit this drawing in combination with the rock itself, the source of the drawn shadows, on a purpose-made steel-framed table which is the same height and size of the drawing table I use to make the drawing. The drawing sits upon a low carbon concrete slab made with crushed Silurian rock sourced from Grizedale, the exact same rock type which I used to make my drawing.
Drawing size: 50 x 70 cm. (Rotring ink on 300gms Fabriano paper)
Rock: Silurian, aged 443-419 ma
Table size: H – 110cm, W – 51, D – 71 cm.
Date 2024/2025
The low carbon cement used to make the concrete has a 50% less carbon footprint than standard Portland cement. Under the drawing is another shelf of low carbon concrete, which supports the very stone that was used to make the drawing above it. It’s displacement from the drawing, and indeed the drawing itself, references time and transience. The work also speaks of presence and absence, subject and object, art and nature.
The drawing accurately records the haptic qualities of the Earth’s geology at a specific time and location, linking us to the past through the present and connecting us to something larger than ourselves.
After a long time planning, a group of PLACE Collective artists will be exhibiting work in the stunning galleries of Grizedale Forest, Cumbria, in response to the theme of Art in a Time of Urgency.
All of our practices are concerned with better understanding and caring for the living world – yet in a time of increasingly frequent severe weather events, melting glaciers, political instability, and a critical need for nature recovery, what might artists do? What work do we create, what questions do we ask, what stories do we tell? What might we do differently?
MEET THE ARTISTS AND JOIN THE EXHIBITION PREVIEW, APRIL 5TH
Mark your diaries for a visit, and watch out for blog posts in the coming weeks featuring insights from exhibiting artists.
Exhibiting in Grizedale Forest is to build on a legacy of thoughtful and often boundary-pushing art. It’s a privilege to bring an exhibition to this venue, and while not all work centres on the forest, or even on trees, some artists have chosen to create work in and in response to Grizedale Forest – more will be revealed when the show opens.
