Living willow walls

I first saw living woven willow fences in "Radical Landscapes" by Jane Amidon.  She highlighted the show garden at Chaumont-sur-Loire 1996 of Judy and David Drew called "Saules dans la Brume" ("Willows in the fog")

The woven willows form a trellis that supports new leaf growth.  "The display thickens as the sun and a microclimate of mist provide nourishment." 

I love the fact that the willows are alive and growing. I love the craftsmanship and artistry in the woven pattern.  I like the fact that it is of a bulky material yet appears light and almost transparent. This is a quality I notice in much Gothic work, like the Oxford University museum.

 
These living fences - or "fedges" - would certainly be suitable as the walls of a green meeting place in the forest.  There are certainly many experts out there who know how to do this:

        http://www.willowpooldesigns.co.uk/gallery.cfm?iCategoryIDPK=12
       
        http://www.westwaleswillows.co.uk/fedgeplanting.html

Symbolism of stained glass windows

Gothic as a style has been hi-jacked many times (not least by the horror literature, vampires and "goths"). 

"Only a minority of modern designers have followed Ruskin's ideal of anonymous craftsmen working in harmony for the benefit of art and society"  "Some modern co-operations use Gothic as a branding device.  However, wheareas the monastic buildings represented and promoted specific morals, the modern counterpart has no specific meaning." (Buchanan)

"East window of the quire at Gloucester Cathedral is the largest window in Europe.

The medieval stained glass shows the powerful on earth surmounted by the heavenly hierarchy"

"At Coventry, a mdern cathedral replaced its bombed medieval predecessor.  John Piper's stained glass in the Baptistry is abstract, but the luminous colours [were] inspired by Gothic glass"

      

I think the effect of the circular light flooding through glass stunning and memorable of the sun rising through the canopy of a dense forest reflecting off the leaves and silhouetting the branches.  I think it would be amazing to enhace the effect in an outdoor forest setting by installing stained glass (or some other transparent or reflective coloured material) in the canopy.

David Booth informed me that a sculpture Kevin Atherton had done something similar in the FOD (See link).  However, I feel this piece of art is simply stuck up there and is not sympathetic to or integrated with the context of the forest.  I will be truing to achieve more sympathy. Further, the stained glass is static and does not move with the wind, so the light reflections are not optimised.  I will aim to create something more akin to a "mobile" that plays in the breeze...

            http://www.forestofdean-sculpture.org.uk/sculptures/current/cathedral/

Regarding symbolism, I can't help but be reminded of the modern art of having one's genetic fingerprint framed and hung on the wall. There is great symbolism in that we are all the ongoing adaptation of a genetic code under the constant process of natural selection...

Live tree carving

I found some amazing pictures of live tree carving and wonder what Ruskin would have thought. There is real skill and craftsmanship here.

I understand that if one carves very shallowly, the bark grows back, hence the effect of this fabulous sculpture of a woman (above).  If one wants to stop the bark regrowing, then one must carve a bit deeper.  It probably also depends on the tree species...

I feel assured that the live trees are not harmed badly.  Care is taken to: not ring-bark; not carve too deeply and ; to ensure the carving is sealed - to stop infection and invasion by insects.

Perhaps the columns of my "spiritual" forest place can be carved by local artists and craftsmen. Indeed, the tree carving iteslf could become ritualistic and a means of bringing the local community together.

    

     

The Morality of Gothic

"Ruskin argued that the Middle Age craftsmen were allowed to be freely innovative.  This accounted for both the beauties of Gothic and for the medieval social structure he so admired. He felt the Victorian age was dominated by mass production; modern manufacture was immoral because it treated the workers merely as labourers rather than artists in their own right.  It was only by returning to medieval craft production that society could be reformed and true art and architecture revived."

From "Gothic Glories" by Alexandria Buchanan

I assume if Ruskin were alive today he would be saying the same, but even more strongly. Architecture is more of a commodity than ever before. Craftsmanship seems to have become a niche, lost from the mainstream of place creation.  Can we reverse that trend when we build new sustainable homes and communities?

"Dean and Woodward tried to put these theories into practice, under the watchful eye of Ruskin himeslf, at the Oxford University Museum, begun in 1855."

I was up at Keble College Oxford (85-88).  It is just across South Parks Road from the OU Museum.  I liked it then, but maybe did not appreciate why.  Now I understand  that iron columns, though not structural but merely decorative, are an ode to medieval columns.  I love the pointed neo-Gothic arches, which seem to give the building immense verticality.  But most of all, I love the light that comes pouring in from the glass and iron roof. 

For me, this is man immitating forest.

For me the craftmanship is key, but the art doesnt have to be overly ornate.  I love the simplicity of the neo-Gothic chuch at Brockhampton (built 1901) designed by William Richard Lethaby of the arts and crafts movement.

That is why I am inspired by the work of installation artists such as Nils Udo (see other blog post). He installs art and ephemeral place in nature.  Indeed that these installations have limited lifespans is a fundamental part of his philosophy. 

I would like to create more permanent places in forests: awe inspiring places.  These places will be where man takes raw nature and embelishes it with pure gothic art and craft. I would like local people and craftsmen to:

- build it

- feel they have created a work of local art, not installed a commodity

- meet there on a ritualistic basis

- feel safe there

- feel altruistic there

- feel like peers and part of the same group when they are there and when they leave

I want them to feel affinity with each other....