Ashford Community Woodland
(2006)
Location : Singleton Hill, Ashford, Kent
Materials : European Oak
Funding : BCTV & Ashford Borough Council
BTCV (British Trust for Conservation Volunteers) asked me to create a number of sculptural pieces, to be placed across the site of the then new Ashford Community Woodland.
In total I made six pieces in oak, which link to each other both visually and thematically. Each piece references one or more of the six species of native trees newly planted at the time of this project. Some of the works act as waymarkers, helping to guide the public through the site by looking through view holes framing the next sculpture along the route - thus drawing the viewer across and through the woodland. The works are set in a line linking across the length of the woodland, leading towards the site of the Visitor Centre, to the south east of the site.
Three of the six sculptures leading us through the woodland
Viewing through Salix waymarker towards Crown
Crown
Each of the six uprights of Crown holds a carved leaf shape of each of the tree species planted at the woodland. The six elements face in to each other, describing the invisible sphere of the Earth - our precious and vulnerable home.
The second waymarker Prunus
Threshold Sculpture
The Threshold Sculpture contains six enigmatic interpretation panels relating to the six trees species planted in the new woodland - oak, ash, hazel, hornbeam, field maple and hawthorn. As with Crown, the eight uprights speak across the pathway to each other, describing four circles in the space between them.
One of the six interpretation panels
Each panel contains carvings relating to a particular tree species, showing a the leaf, a number and an object. Can you work out the riddle of the panel below? can you identify the tree species from the leaf? What is the object? What does the number signify?
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