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The purpose was
to give a symbolic access to a different mood within the park.
To introduce the elements of less managed natural growth,
playfulness, tactile surfaces, colours, shifts in scale, otherworldliness.
References
The Gateway has some specific references to the
nature of the green spaces in the Horsham area.
These are:
Heathland (rare habit, rich with wildlife, which is being
conserved in St Leonards Forest and Buchan Park) brings lizards, ferns,
sundews (insect trapping plants), berries.
Seasons Oak for summer, ivy for winter evergreens
Mythology The St Leonards legend brings the image of the dragon but there was also
the Dragon family (name goes back to 1682) which has probably named
Dragons Green in the Horsham area and Dragons Lane in Cowfold where this
artist lives and walks daily.
The dragon legend includes the reward requested by St Leonard after
ridding the people of the dragon that the snakes be banished from the
forest. However there is
always a snake in the garden and the snake serves as a personal motif and
warning within this artists work.
Flower
wheels The two flower wheels are primroses and loosestrife.
One emphasises the hope of spring the other is a common flower in
the area and personal motif of the artist.
To show flowers in a simplified
and stylised circular pattern is common in both the West and the East.
In England an obvious example is the Tudor rose, in the East the
lotus is used in many contexts. This
artist has a strong interest in cross-cultural work.
Gothic
Carving A strong
influence. In medieval church
carving the tipped up seats (misericords) often have playful themes of the
topsy turvy world ie the cart before the horse, the pig playing pipes to
represent their squealing sound, showing the back instead of the front of
a flower (showing the chaos of changing the world order).
There are playful elements here that the back reflects the front of
each gatepost but is not consistent. Some
elements come through to the other side and weave logically, others
don’t.
The tool marks and pattern making are also influenced
by this vibrant and sometimes crude hand carving of the past.
The human antlered head
is the overseer of all the natural areas and is there to balance
what is allowed to dominate. On
a simple level he could be seen as representing the park manager, the
maintenance staff etc or a Celtic Cernunnos God of fields and farming.
Materials
The Gateway is carved in green (unseasoned) oak.
Each part is a single 4M high 600mm wide and 120mm thick piece.
There is 1.3 meters in the ground.
There are steel rods fixed crosswise and then one cubic metre of
concrete poured into the two footings to keep the wood upright.
The carvings are coloured with spirit stains and oil pigments.
They are coated over the top with 4 layers of Danish Oil, which
will be reapplied each year. Until
the oil was finally applied the work had to be covered with a tarpaulin
every time it rained as black tannins leach out of the wood when wet and
streak down the untreated surface.
Timescale
The Gateway took 320 hours to carve (around 25 hours is the maximum
completed in a week). It was
started August 2006 and completed in May 2007.
It was largely carved inside the artist’s studio in Cowfold over
winter, but was completed upright in a trial pit in the ground where
around 3 weeks was spent finishing details and adding the stains and oil.
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