Re-imagining the historic landscape at Tatton Park
May bank holiday weekend heralds the beginning of a season of programmed events for Tatton Park Biennial. Three stimulating and thought provoking days will feature film screenings, curators' tours of the grounds and artists' talks.
Of the 18 artists creating new work for the Biennial, many have been enjoying the ‘oasis' of calm in Tatton's gardens. For artist David Cotterrell, his Tatton experience has provided him with a welcome respite from another ongoing artistic commission. Cotterrell has spent the last few months working in Kabul and Helmand Province, Afghanistan, creating a new body of work for the Wellcome Trust.
There cannot be many greater contrasts than the desert expanses of Afghanistan and the immaculately manicured lawns of Tatton Park. Cotterrell has taken inspiration for his work at Tatton from Humphry Repton's Red Book, which was produced exclusively for the estate by the 18th century landscape architect. The Red Book was a masterplan for changes to the design of the park, Repton's ‘imagining' of an improved landscape. For Cotterrell, the Red Book is "a blueprint for those who wanted to cheat mortality by creating a lineage."
In response, he has created Little Sheep, a series of photographic ‘trompe l'oeil' panels embedded throughout the gardens. Cotterrell, like Repton, has played with our ideas of perception and perspective in his work. He has transposed an iconic object, Tatton's Choragic Monument, onto the acrylics and has then sited them in specific areas around the gardens. There have been some challenges, not least of which was rigging and suspending the works from the trees in the rain (Cotterrell is not keen on heights). He has also used an experimental print process which "revealed unexpected results, which were for the most part really welcome".
In the recent beautiful weather, the Little Sheep have already become gathering points for our visitors, many of whom have been seen basking in their shadows and admiring new perspectives of old favourite views.
Cotterrell comments that he hopes "people will see the works as slightly amusing, slightly silly attempts to modify nature: flawed attempts to fool perception, not in the hope that people will question the landscape as much as the aspiration to alter it".
Cotterrell will be talking about his work at Tatton on Sunday 25th May. The long weekend features a diverse and packed programme of events, listed below. Biennial curators Danielle Arnaud and Jordan Kaplan have said about the upcoming weekend, "We are really looking forward to launching the catalogue, taking people on tours of the gardens and hearing some of our artists speaking! We're thrilled that there will be new commissions to launch, from Manuela Ribadeneira and The Little Artists to Simon Pope's participatory Memory work and Savage's sound performance. It will be an exciting weekend and we hope the weather will stay with us as new visitors discover the Biennial and its works!"
Weekend Programme
Saturday 24 May
11am: curators' tour of the gardens
11am-5pm: film screenings of artists' new works for the Biennial
11am-12pm, 2-3pm & 4-5pm: curated historical films from Lucy Reynolds and Sarah Wood
11am-4pm: Birdlife workshops with artist Shane Waltener
11am-4pm: Capturing Stories with artist Faye Claridge
12pm-4pm: Launch of the Biennial catalogue
3pm: Biennial artist's talk with Heather Morison
3.30pm: Opening of artist Manuela Ribadeneira's new work, Paradise this way!
4pm: Launch of The Little Artists new work for the Biennial
Sunday 25 May
10am-5pm: Jacques Nimki's first curated event, with Savage's sounds invading the grounds
11am-5pm: screenings of new artists' works for the Biennial
11am-12pm, 2-3pm: curated historical films from Lucy Reynolds and Sarah Wood
11am-4pm: Birdlife workshops with artist Shane Waltener
11am-4pm: Capturing Stories with artist Faye Claridge
12pm: curators' tour of the gardens
1pm: Repton's Vistas and Visions with artist David Cotterrell
2pm-4pm: Watercolour memory workshops with artist Simon Pope and painter Mike Hoyles
Monday 26 May
11am-5pm: film screenings of artists' new works for the Biennial
11am & 2pm: curated historical films from Lucy Reynolds and Sarah Wood
11am-4pm: Birdlife workshops with artist Shane Waltener
12pm: curators' tour of the gardens
2-4pm: Watercolour memory workshops with artist Simon Pope and painter Mike Hoyles |
