Time

Time is an important medium.

Experience

The experience can be as valid as the object.
The trail can be experienced literally or in a dreamlike state.
It is a place for looking and thinking.
Pondering questions:
Which animals used to graze the meadow?
Who lived here?
How many students have passed through?
What are they doing now?
Has anyone died here?
Where could you hide a body?
Where would you meet a lover?
What is that birdsong?
How many creatures live here?
What happens after dark?

Decoys

The structure is a decoy, it is not important, it functions as a trigger.

Rewilding

As man builds so nature marches on.
The boundaries become blurred, shall we restrain or let go? Man creates landscapes and architecture then abandons them. The temporal cycle of birth, growth, death, continues.
Skeletal remains are overtaken by rebirth. Nature bursts out to show off.

History of the Site

Research shows that the campus site used to be part of the Barton Court Estate,which can trace it's origins back to about 600AD, when it was farm and parkland attached to the Abbey of St Augustine. Barton Court was still a farm until early in the 20th century, but much of its land then went to make way for housing, school and college developments.

In the late 1960's Canterbury Art School, which had originally been founded by Sidney Cooper, had outgrown the twelve separate buildings scattered around town. The modern purpose built campus was developed on a greenfield site, and is arranged like an amphitheatre. The greenspace and large trees remind us of past roots.

Sculpture Trail Development

Starting with a performative build of an artwork on the main front lawn, I aim to build a contemplative walking trail around the campus, highlighting hidden areas. It will emerge in the Spring just as nature iself is waking up. The viewer is encouraged to keep looking as development of forms and changes occur. The trail is an unscripted path that requires physical engagement and fresh eyes. Nature's creative processes and patterns, man's impact on the environment both historically and currently offer reconnections with territory and timespans.

UCA as 'Site'

I am currently exploring the site, space and environment of the UCA campus in Canterbury as 'Site' for site-specific sculptural works. I am instinctively curious about a site and it's boundaries; it's natural history and cultural history colliding on a temporal cycle of birth, growth, death, and rebirth.
Landscape and wildscape, architecture and archaeology ever entwined.
Working with nature's creative processes and man's impact on the environment, I am creating work and experiences using a variety of material and media.

Welcome to the UCA Sculpture Trail Blog 2012