- Venue
- Coombe Abbey country Park
- Location
- West Midlands
Work in alternative spaces is always interesting to view as is hearing practitioners discussing their work. It was with these opinions that I approached the out yer tree walk and talk event at Coombe Abbey country park on a somewhat questionable Saturday afternoon in august. I waited at the exhibitions stall in the visitor centre as a crowd of around 30 people gathered to start the event, two o’clock came and we all headed out into the grounds following the exhibition organisers.
The first work we encountered was fellow a-n blogger Hayley Parfitt’s “wildlife stacks” which were quite thinly distributed around an over-grown patch of the park, however despite this they filled the area sufficiently and I feel they could be a beneficial permanent addition to the site’s inhabitants. Unfortunately she was not present to discuss her work so the only explanation given was her artists statement read allowed by one of the event’s organisers which would prove to be the case with several other exhibitors which was a real shame.
We collectively moved onwards and upwards (the park has some steps to navigate) where we were greeted by a flowerbed which had been infested with Avril Elward’s sculptures of vividly coloured, organic forms seemingly growing alongside the flowers. She was the first artist present to discuss her work and did so very quickly suggesting that they were meant to look unpleasant. We were then instructed to simply turn around to view Victoria Redgrave’s “not seen and not heard”; a work which consisted of two salvaged chairs, one much smaller than the other which we were told represents marginalised members of society in a very well prepared speech by the artist. The fact the audience was separated from the work by the lake we had just crossed enforced this separation of people very effectively.
.“Hemispheres” the most expensive work for sale in the show at £1500 was incredibly beautifully fabricated by John Routledge and this beauty attracted the interest of several children’s inquisitive hands which I feel most of the group felt a little uneasy about, again I wished the artist had of been there to get his opinions on his younger fans interest in his reflective surfaces. Jim Biddulph whom had been the voice of the un-present artists up to this point stepped up again, this time to discuss his own work “one of only 3 certainties in life”; A tree mounted sign stating that the viewer should ‘please disregard this sign’ which became interesting when all 30 members of the events audience were made to regard it. “From Me to You” by Victor Jimenez was a set of two benches facing each other under two of the parks attractive trees which were supposed to be a conversation between two male lovers, however their natural look made it difficult for other park users to differentiate between these and other benches in the park and hence when we came to view them they were in use. This Minimal aesthetic, homosexual reference and audience participation (even if it was unintentional) all combined to suggest works by Felix Gonzalez-Torres but again the artist was unable to attend on the day for me to discuss this further with.
Taz Lovejoy (another of the exhibition organisers and current MA student at Coventry University) showed “Hybrid Infusions” a series of five differently coloured spherical objects made of plant pots and hung from branches. Elsewhere in the show she was showing another series of similar spherical hung objects but these were made of broken umbrella’s, one of which was unfortunately stolen which is a definite risk of showing in such locations.
Jo Greens second appearance of the exhibition was my favourite work in the show and was a large ‘human’ sun dial, minimal and natural in appearance it was a mathematically complex piece of work which required both the audience’s and natures participation, the latter of which we didn’t receive. The next work was by Mike Dodd who had undoubtedly travelled the furthest both geographically and from his practice, an illustrator by trade he presented a land work made from the sites unused wood and based on a spiral. He also travelled from France to construct this work which was again unfortunately rushed through viewing due to torrential rain.
My overall feeling of the show was that the types of work on show were broad, yet some of the works presentation was a little predictable. I particularly thought works which used the site were most successful and fully utilized the unique opportunity offered by this type of exhibition. I thought that out yer tree as an organisation provided a good amount of printed material including flyers, maps, a children’s quiz and a small scale catalogue which is often something which temporary exhibitions tend to not provide. However I think they could have made more of the format of actually walking around the exhibition somehow and I feel if not on the guided walk it could be possible to miss some pieces of work.