Cywain, Bala

2007

One of my favourite projects! I was appointed with Angharad Pearce Jones to work together as lead artists for this centre in Bala, North Wales, to celebrate the rural life and work practices of Wales. Angharad and I worked closely with Huw Meredith Owen, the architect of the site, to conceive and construct an integrated scheme of sculpture, landscape design and architecture that brings the working of the land to life in true collaboration.

For me, the rural Wales in which I live is the coming together of geology, landscape and culture. Remote landscape can belie the fertile synthesis of land and people, manifest in everything from the highly site-specific characteristics of dry stone walls to the tools for working the land and culminating in the culture that articulates the use of the land.

I was keen to explore the visceral qualities of such a direct relationship with the land. I celebrated human interaction with the natural environment by creating a series of sculptures that reference ancient activities and fundamental shapes, but which interpret them in a contemporary and imaginative manner. Thus an old Drover’s road running past the site became the inspiration for animal footprints cast in the brick paving, created by local school children.

As somebody who was raised in the city before making a conscious choice to live in rural north Wales, I wanted to draw upon the earthy, physical qualities of agricultural life - the everyday cycle of life and death that is inherent in working the land - but from which many of us are now far removed. The image of the blade became a key starting point, because the blade is fundamental to working the land. The blade of the plough cuts the earth to plant crops, the scythe cuts the crop; shears cut the fleece and the blade of the knife slaughters the animal reared on the land. My large sweeping arcs of steel evoke plough blades, the welded seams echoing field patterns and boundaries. My oak seating and climbing structures reference older ploughs still, wooden ones such as can be seen in St Fagan’s.

Angharad and I quickly recognised the potential for entrance and enclosure devices to draw the visitor around the site and frame their experience of the setting. My slate and steel gateways reference both field enclosure and the journeys of the Drovers through the landscape to distant markets, the sculpted form of the gateways being inspired by the shape of animal hooves. Reading the words carved on the Slate Gateway draws the viewer back and forth through the gateway, the visual intrigue leading to a physical interaction with space and landscape.

Another fundamental aspect is the element of touch. Working the land makes it come alive with produce, and as a sculptor I make my materials come alive with new interpretations through touch and manipulation. The well-worn shape of a tool handle speaks of purpose and frequent use, and reminds us of those whose hands hold the tool to work the land. The door handles I created celebrate this detail, whilst also referencing bones and organic form.

All these ideas came together in my Amphitheatre at Cywain - a performance space, but one which has drama and interest even without a performance. The sweep of the terraces echoes the ploughing of the land, with the strata of the brick walls rising and spiralling out of the earth; the oak seating surfaces are reminiscent of seed shapes and plough blades. The centre was designed as a celebration of working the land, and the amphitheatre is my sculptural working of that very land.