Charcoal Works is an exhibition of commissioned artworks that have been produced with the charcoaled remains of the iconic oak sculpture ‘Place’, that stood on the Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail for 29 years.
In October 2015 a charcoal ‘clamp’ was built on the same location in the forest where the oak sculpture had stood. For three days and two nights, beneath a huge earth covered mound, an intense heat steamed, smoked and slowly carbonised the wood.
The exhibition at Hardwick Gallery brings the recycling of a single artwork into multiple elements full circle, and Onya McCausland has invited 16 artists to produce new work from the charcoal according to their diverse practices. The exhibition includes works by Edward Allington, Sophie Bouvier Auslander, Jess Bryant, Marcin Gawin & Malgorzata Lucyna Zajac, Joy Gregory, Tess Jaray, James Keith, Sam Llewellyn- Jones, Lisa Milroy, Onya McCausland, Jayne Parker, Lotte Scott, Joy Sleeman, Andrew Stonyer, Kay Tabernacle and Jo Volley.
****Please note this exhibition has variable opening times from Mon-Fri, 10am-4pm. The gallery will be closed on Friday 15th April after 11.20am, Monday 18th April and Wednesday 20th April. Please email hardwickgallery@glos.ac.uk to check gallery opening times on the day of your visit. Apologies for any inconvenience.****
Charcoal Works will be accompanied by a symposium, Deep Material Encounters, to be held at Clearwell Caves, Forest of Dean, one of the country’s oldest iron ore mines, on Friday 15th April 2016. The symposium brings together researchers and artists from across the arts and sciences to discuss ways that knowledge is developed, and perceptions altered, through encounters with particular materials, in the context of current ecological conditions. The symposium starts at 2.30pm. Book your place at the symposium via the following link. There will be a coach leaving for Clearwell Caves (Coleford) from Hardwick Campus (Cheltenham) at 11.20am and arriving back at 7pm – follow directions when booking to reserve a place on the coach.
Alongside the exhibition and symposium, Onya McCausland is creating a new temporary work for the Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail. Charcoal Measure is a line of charcoal on the forest path that draws attention to the scale of the underground coal excavations, working from the surveyed grid structure that maps the empty cavities 1000ft below the surface. The work may be viewed on the Trail from Tuesday 15th March 2016.
Charcoal Works and Charcoal Measure are commissions by the Forest of Dean Sculpture Trust in collaboration with Forestry Commission England. Supported by funding from Arts Council of England and Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.