We’re so very excited to be in the final stages of preparation for the Sense of Here exhibition. Given the uncertainty of events this year, we’re delighted that we are able to share work from the project in the beautiful galleries at Grizedale Forest. The exhibition opens on October 1st, and runs until December 13th.
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One of the impacts of the enforced state of confinement during a state of lockdown across the country is the way that our attention has been brought more keenly to the local. While there are many people whose jobs have become more demanding, there’s a huge swathe of the population that has been put into a kind of holding pattern. What is local – life on the doorstep – has been brought into sharp relief. What’s special about your local patch? What do you love about it, or what are your concerns? If you head over to the map here, you can add your thoughts, and find out what others are saying.
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“To know fully even one field or one land is a lifetime’s experience. In the world of poetic experience it is depth that counts, not width. A gap in a hedge, a smooth rock surfacing a narrow lane, a view of a woody meadow, the stream at the junction of four small fields – these are as much as a man can fully experience.”
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January 1st, 2020
“The first day of January: a new year, a new decade, and here we are beneath a sky that’s a drift of racing clouds, wind blowing at us from the Scafell massif. Despite the cold and nagging wind, I’m sweating: we’ve been walking steadily uphill for just over an hour. There is only the wind for noise, and the echoes of falling of water in rocky gullies all around us. We’ve just passed Sty Head Tarn and stand at the pass, mesmerized by the play of clouds across the fells.
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The light is changing from moment to moment, fast clouds skitting across the sun, and the sun itself sinking with that rapidity that characterises the days now, so close to midwinter. One moment the canvas is bright, the next it is in shade. Behind it, Skiddaw holds onto the light. This is the first blue sky day we’ve had in just under two weeks, and it’s very welcome.
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To continue reflections on the residency in September, here is Hugo Hunt, sharing his thoughts. Hugo uses 35mm film in his photography, but it’s not just about the images. Behind every image is a process of seeing. His blog reveals a few things that fell into place and maybe shifted for him, and how this is influencing his photographic work.
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Fog has curled and settled itself in the valleys, locking the low land into a monochrome hush. We drive in it, and then through it, emerging to see mountains floating above a clouded land. We’ve come to Whinlatter Forest, and as we walk into this wooded landscape, we tread lightly over birch, oak and hazel leaves sugared with the morning’s frost. Beneath them the forest floor is a dense spread of brown pine needles, each one edged with white crystals of ice. Cold has covered the land.
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September 7 2019
I’m sitting beside Wastwater, looking at the canvas and the land beyond it where the sheer rocky screes tumble into the lake. I’m still, and quiet, simply watching the play of cloud shadows on hills.
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The year is turning and the months passing. Walking as if around a clock face is turning out to be a good way to get a sense of this, stepping through the seasons, stepping through place, watching things change.
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Read MoreWilderness was never a homogenous raw material. It was very diverse, and the resulting artifacts are very diverse. These differences in the end-product are known as cultures. The rich diversity of the world’s cultures reflects a corresponding diversity in the wilds that gave them birth.
Aldo Leopold, 1949
“It is my soul’s food, my mental calm and my physical energy. I need access to the outdoors, fresh air away from the sound of cars, smell of exhaust and sight of tarmac at least once a week.”
This is one of the views shared through the Sense of Here questionnaire. Why does green space matter to you? And what are you concerned about? And if you have a connection to the Lake District, what is it that you value?
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Just because you know a place it doesn’t mean it will ever feel the same twice. Today our walk takes me back in time, to memories of sitting in a cottage windowsill and watching snow fall, memories of daring dips in a chilled lake, memories of late night card games, days in front of the fire, walks into Martindale, warm, simple dinners shared with friends.
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Sense of Here 