Newby Hall Sculpture Park

2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007.

The owners of Newby Hall, near Ripon, North Yorkshire, Richard and Lucinda Compton host a temporary Summer exhibition of sculpture in the grounds and woodlands each year. Many well-known sculptors exhibit their work including Anthony Caro, Lynn Chadwick, Michael Lyons and Nicola Hicks. Gillian has been invited to show her work every year since 2002.

'Outlook', 2007
‘Outlook’ is an installation of six freestanding steel ‘windows’ mounted on poles. They mimic the scale and hierarchy of the windows of a Georgian house, which change in relation to who would have been looking through them at the time the house was built. The large hall and drawing room windows afford a much better outlook than the tiny attic bedroom windows.

The installation represents the transparent parts of a building as free-standing objects, with an absence of solid walls.

It is a playful comment on neo-classical architecture and on how life must have been in the past for at least some (women, servants) – quite restrictive, class ridden and inward looking.

‘Cluster’, 2005
The purpose of ‘Cluster’, a loosely arranged group of steel objects is at first uncertain. The members of the group all face in one direction yet seem to relate to and influence each other.

The work looks at how when individual things are grouped (standing stones, constellations of stars, people) it changes our view of their power and meaning.

'Wind farm', 2004.
The sculpture bears a passing resemblance to a group of wind turbines, conveying a sense of movement and energy up in the air. The piece plays on the contradictions that wind farms give rise to: environmental yet man-made, old and new technology, the practical and the quixotic.

'Draw-rings (squeeze), (slice) and (drop)', 2003.
These 'Draw-rings' are some of a larger series of sculpture for outdoors. The title 'Draw-rings' comes from the description often given of the artist's work that it is like drawing in space

Each sculpture is based on a circle or 'ring', which implies movement in space, with each piece describing a particular physical action or event. The sculpture can be displayed as individual pieces or as a group.

'Please open (and close) the gates', 2002.
"Please Open (and Close) the Gates" Gillian's series of 'adjustable' sculpture was made specifically for the Park and is based on the many iron gates along the avenues of Newby Hall's gardens.

Each individual piece in the series can be moved so that people can 'open' them and therefore rearrange the sculpture. It is a comment on the transition from the formal gardens of this stately home to the wilder more 'natural' woodlands, and of the accessiblity of the place, now open to the (paying) public.

All images © Gillian Brent