Project completed

I will return to Broomhill at the beginning of September to see whether nature has invaded the work.. or maybe just left it alone.

I am now back in Berlin and have had 48 hours to reflect on my experiences at Broomhill. First of all, the food was delicious and Rinus and Aniet are fantastic hosts, add this to the sunshine and exploding spring flora and you can't have a much more pleasant way to spend a few days in the English countryside.

The work

Images of the work and its location in the park.

The process

The fecund atmosphere of the forest infected the work. The siting of it meant that a much lighter, less intrusive piece would be much more appropriate than the one I had planned. I also wanted to it to be quite open and vulnerable to its environment.

I built the frame as planned. But, having arrived with the flat-pack igloo and a selection of materials to cover the frame, I decided to leave the frame open and uncovered so that the work would be affected by the weather and invaded by the plant and animal life. It also meant that the work would sit more comfortably in its environment. In a gallery situation, I would not want an object to operate in this way but in this situation I had no desire to set up a battle between my work and its environment.

Once the frame was constructed I built up some soil banks and planted ferns, nettles and clods of grassy earth. (ferns are fascinating because of their curly form, sporophyte reproduction and close similarity to pre-historic plant life). The final result of my gardening had slight echoes of a newly planted garden on building site. I then collected logs and stapled underlay around them and arranged them one might a logfire.