Field, bronze, c.200 x 500 x 20cm
Jerwood Sculpture Prize 2005; installed Ragley Hall, Warwickshire, 2006.
In 2012 the Jerwood Foundation auctioned their sculpture collection - Field was bought by a private collector in the USA.
Below is the proposal text exhibited for a group exhibition of shortlisted artists, Jerwood Sculpture Prize 2005, Jerwood Space, London, 2005.
Note - significant aspects changed during production.
FIELD – PROPOSAL 2005
My proposal is to cast a small, rectangular section of a ploughed field in bronze and install it in an area of lawn in the gardens of Ragley Hall. The sculpture's patine would be dark brown, as if rich, fertile soil.
The piece would be approximately 178cm x 400cm x 15-20cm, a domestic dimension[1], in relation to which the mechanically-made furrows would seem disproportionately large. The (archetypal) original would be ploughed by John Webb, [the] National Ploughing Champion, at Seabrook’s Farm, Little Leighs Hall, Essex. Five furrows would be made in a single gesture by five mouldboards set at 14" intervals[2]: 'driven straight', with clods of earth falling where and how they will on either side. The total length of ploughing would be more than double its width (i.e. approximately 4m), to suggest continuation and expanse; the ends of the furrows would be broken off by hand, roughly straight, as if fragments of something larger.
The bronze field would be installed by first removing an area of turf and topsoil, and then cementing in from beneath so the work's horizontal mid-point would be level with the top of the surrounding earth. The edges of the sculpture would be embedded in the surrounding turf and / or earth.
I see this work as a kind of memorial / monument to a ploughed field, a reminder of something temporary which still exists[3]. The immediacy and impermanence of the original ploughing would be in contrast to the labour and permanence of the final piece, creating a further sense of disproportion.
The sculpture's proposed location in the gardens, between the Hall and the fields / landscaping beyond, is designed to prompt questions about status, belonging and societal change. The bronze field, as sculpture, would not be out of place in the gardens; as field, it wouldn't belong. The work would reference historically constructed social and cultural division, as well as traditions of landscape within fine art that offer the viewer somewhere they are not[4]. Material parity of field and garden would be emphasised. The piece would also be visible from the field, and its domestic scale would link field with Hall.
Fields are places where seeds are sown. The potential for growth here would be through personal, direct experience, the imagination. In the bronze ploughed field, leaves would fall, insects would come and go, water would gather as puddles[5], it might snow, and the sculpture would gradually become more naturally absorbed over time. Nature in this context would be both real and representational, natural and artificial.
[1] Relating more to the size of a large rug / small box room / vegetable patch than a field.
[2] The maquette, a cast fragment of a single furrow, is from ploughing made by mouldboards set at 10” intervals (scale 1:1.4 in relation to the proposed piece). With thanks to Jimmy, and Michael Watkins, Five Nations and irish Champion.
[3] Locally, globally, and at different times of the year.
[4] E.g. landscape painting, or Robert Smithson’s non-sites.
[5] There would also be some drainage to prevent puddles from over-dominating the piece. Installation in a sloping lawn would create some run-off, whilst a number of holes made in the deepest parts of the cast would assist drainage further. Any rainwater that did gather would generally last longer than rain falling in the surrounding gardens.
Jerwood Sculpture Prize 2005; installed Ragley Hall, Warwickshire, 2006.
In 2012 the Jerwood Foundation auctioned their sculpture collection - Field was bought by a private collector in the USA.
Below is the proposal text exhibited for a group exhibition of shortlisted artists, Jerwood Sculpture Prize 2005, Jerwood Space, London, 2005.
Note - significant aspects changed during production.
FIELD – PROPOSAL 2005
My proposal is to cast a small, rectangular section of a ploughed field in bronze and install it in an area of lawn in the gardens of Ragley Hall. The sculpture's patine would be dark brown, as if rich, fertile soil.
The piece would be approximately 178cm x 400cm x 15-20cm, a domestic dimension[1], in relation to which the mechanically-made furrows would seem disproportionately large. The (archetypal) original would be ploughed by John Webb, [the] National Ploughing Champion, at Seabrook’s Farm, Little Leighs Hall, Essex. Five furrows would be made in a single gesture by five mouldboards set at 14" intervals[2]: 'driven straight', with clods of earth falling where and how they will on either side. The total length of ploughing would be more than double its width (i.e. approximately 4m), to suggest continuation and expanse; the ends of the furrows would be broken off by hand, roughly straight, as if fragments of something larger.
The bronze field would be installed by first removing an area of turf and topsoil, and then cementing in from beneath so the work's horizontal mid-point would be level with the top of the surrounding earth. The edges of the sculpture would be embedded in the surrounding turf and / or earth.
I see this work as a kind of memorial / monument to a ploughed field, a reminder of something temporary which still exists[3]. The immediacy and impermanence of the original ploughing would be in contrast to the labour and permanence of the final piece, creating a further sense of disproportion.
The sculpture's proposed location in the gardens, between the Hall and the fields / landscaping beyond, is designed to prompt questions about status, belonging and societal change. The bronze field, as sculpture, would not be out of place in the gardens; as field, it wouldn't belong. The work would reference historically constructed social and cultural division, as well as traditions of landscape within fine art that offer the viewer somewhere they are not[4]. Material parity of field and garden would be emphasised. The piece would also be visible from the field, and its domestic scale would link field with Hall.
Fields are places where seeds are sown. The potential for growth here would be through personal, direct experience, the imagination. In the bronze ploughed field, leaves would fall, insects would come and go, water would gather as puddles[5], it might snow, and the sculpture would gradually become more naturally absorbed over time. Nature in this context would be both real and representational, natural and artificial.
[1] Relating more to the size of a large rug / small box room / vegetable patch than a field.
[2] The maquette, a cast fragment of a single furrow, is from ploughing made by mouldboards set at 10” intervals (scale 1:1.4 in relation to the proposed piece). With thanks to Jimmy, and Michael Watkins, Five Nations and irish Champion.
[3] Locally, globally, and at different times of the year.
[4] E.g. landscape painting, or Robert Smithson’s non-sites.
[5] There would also be some drainage to prevent puddles from over-dominating the piece. Installation in a sloping lawn would create some run-off, whilst a number of holes made in the deepest parts of the cast would assist drainage further. Any rainwater that did gather would generally last longer than rain falling in the surrounding gardens.