Projects at Gunpowder ParkAndrea Arnold My leaflet is an attempt to address the question: “Why would people come here?” It is made somewhat tongue in cheek because simultaneously I am saying that by and large you cannot go here at all. I wanted to create a contradiction between what the map stated and encouragement to actually visit the park. As this is a country park I focussed on the more obvious fauna. Jason Carr I paint the waking dream I lived as a boy, visions my parents felt at odds with. My paintings may act as kind of modest witness to an inner-life. A boy sees the world without an adult’s hierarchical order, the pedagogue calls him irreverent, but the boy just goes on telling it like he sees it. My paintings are modest interferences, made in a boyhood hand that does not share an adult’s singular order - the work is a success if it provokes an examination of the Jacqui Brommell, Shefali Choudhary and Marianne Smedley Painting on the environment: a disturbing contrast between culture and nature Building collectively on our individual studio practices, we collaborated to explore our shared concerns – including colour, decoration, beauty and abjection – by extending our experimentation to an unfamiliar, site-specific environment. Taking the man-made nature of Gunpowder Park as our starting point, we made subtle interventions in the Osier Marsh using mixed media including plaster, latex and acrylic paint. These raised questions about how natural beauty relates to artificial enhancement. Using materials from each of our practices we have added an unexpected and unsettling dimension to a fairytale landscape. Rhiannon Evans Barbara Gamper and Marcus Woodcock Time is a belief system, a cultural construction. The Meridian line, an imaginary line creates a divide, a border, bisecting the planet into East and West. And tells the people of Earth where they stand. Virginie Gilardin This work aims to bring the forbidden space from behind the fences back to the front. A new reality is created for the public of the park using a representation of it. Is it the true view of an open space? Or an illusion? Escaping Escaping is an attempt to move the land sealed off outside the mesh panels, or at least a part of it. Responding to the purpose of Gunpowder Park, a new country park for the benefit of the people, the artist wishes to return some of the open space to the community and play with our perception of space. Jody Gilby Imagined Connections is a brief historical narrative of the site under the guise of the Gunpowder Park logo. Merging 'historically accurate' text taken from the internet with imagined happenings to create a link between the park's explosive past and it's connections to WW1 and the present day. The text takes the reader on a journey which connects Gunpowder Park, John McCrae's famous poem In Flanders Fields, the larks and the opium poppy together in one possible history. The text and poem together with an explosives container sit at the entrance to Gunpowder Park as a memorial to all those distantly connected souls. Holly Gosling My idea behind The Vanity Cage was the question the viability of the park and its use. The unnatural feeling at Gunpowder Pak caused me think of cages, and the isolated position of the park brought thoughts of the current self imposed unengaged social isolation in which most people live. The Vanity Cage is made from the fencing which restricts activity in the park, the various domestic mirrors represent the materialism of the suburban community and the swing is a metaphor for the false freedom most humans seem happy to accept as real life. Catherine Hall Supermarket test-site questions the use and funding of common space and the power of invention and manufacturing in our society today. A bank of saplings have been cryptically labelled “NON SEASON SPECIFIC FRUIT TEST SERIES A TESCO VALUE” or “ORANGEAPPLE FRUIT TEST SERIES B TESCO FINEST”. The suggestion is that supermarkets may now be able to overcome seasonal distribution issues in fruit growth. The question is why Gunpowder park might be engaged in such activity. Birdcage Walk A birdcage hangs in a stretch of wet woodland, it’s door open, some food on the tray. What is the link between the caged, uncaged and this space itself? Did a bird escape from this cage and if so has it survived? Is someone trying to capture a wild bird, how wild is the bird that they might capture? The woodland seems a natural, mystical, romantic place but is this all a façade? Are these even interesting questions to those who guide their dogs along the fabricated walkway, do they even see? Sue Healey Anyone out in the Cob Fields and Meadow on 4 June, a delightful warm early-summer’s day, would have had the chance to pause for a chat with Susan as she idly wandered the park looking for the ‘perfect spot’ in which to stretch-out and relax with a good read, passing a pleasant day out in the country. They may also have noticed, and perhaps remarked on, her thoughtful use of industrial-quality safety-clothing, offering her high level protection from any residual chemical toxicity released into the soil through questionable decontamination and land reclamation procedures related to the site’s former use. A factually correct sign about the American Frog, a species not present in the park, reflects the artist’s own feelings of dislocation, being an urban, socially-engaged artist set down in a rural, almost people-less space. A visceral response to the environment. The viewer is also invited to consider what the ecological impact might be on the space, were a non-native species introduced to the park. Guilty Pleasures Taking the initials of Gunpowder Park as it’s starting point, this short film explores the Guilty Pleasures of the people in and around the park and town, such as handbags and “Neighbours”, together with the physical manifestations of potential guilty pleasures, including a tattoo parlour and fish and chip shop.Watch the film and read more at http://iamstillrighthere.co.uk/guiltypleasures.aspx Jonathan Shapley Gunpowder Park, previously a munitions and explosives testing facility, opened to the public in 2004 following extensive decontamination. However, following recent terror attacks in the United Sates, mainland Europe and the UK, there is an urgent need to gain a better understanding of the terrorist’s methods and apparatus. This consultation therefore proposes to restore the site to its previous use in the interests of national security and safety. Gunpowder Park is ideally located and much of the existing infrastructure can be easily restored to offer a comprehensive range of overground and underground ordnance discharge settings. E-mail gpowderpark@googlemail.com for an information pack. Jean Stockwell Are the management at Gunpowder Park involved in undercover operations for MI5? Stand by to Receive In response to the military history and the perceived restrictive nature of the park for human activity a message was delivered by semaphore (system of communication used by armed forces). Message relayed: ‘Restricted area. Return to base.’ I repeat ‘Restricted area. Return to base…..’ The Hug a Tree Project 150 postcards placed around Gunpowder Park requesting the reader to hug a tree. If they want, they can reattach the card to another tree that needs a hug and/or share their tree hugging experiences at www.hugatreeproject.org |
