Out Yer Tree Installation Day

Saturday saw me and my long suffering husband installing my video tape extravaganza at Lickey Hills Country Park near Birmingham for the Out Yer Tree outdoor contemporary art exhibition which starts this weekend.  It was a glorious day and the park is a lovely place with fabulous views over the surrounding countryside.  We met at the visitor centre and then set off to walk the route of planned exhibition area to choose where we would all like to exhibit our work.  The park is mixed woodland but has alot of pines with tall straight trunks and I was looking for a tree with more horizontal branches for my work. Quite early on I spotted an oak tree that I thought would be ideal. 

On the way round the park I spotted several other possible trees but they were in the more open areas of the park and I wanted a location which was more enclosed and my first tree remained the front runner!  None of the other artists favoured "my" tree so no fisty cuffs was required to secure it!  lol  So, we set to and started to install.  There was a smaller oak next to my tree and I initially thought I would hang in both of them so we started by hanging a few in the smaller tree but ultimately I decided I wanted them all in the one tree.

The hanging itself was pretty straightforward, not knowing in advance what size branches we would be hanging the work from we had taken two methods of suspension, bike spokes and chain!  The majority of the pieces were hung using the bike spokes.  This heavy metal could be successfully bent around the branches and through the swivel hooks of the baskets.  The chain was only needed for the branches which were too thicker to use the spoke method on.  Each of the baskets hangs from their original chains attached to a swivel hook which I added so they turn freely and without tangling the chains up.  The position of the branches meant a few of them needed some minor adjustments to the chain length.

It really was a two man job as most of the branches were higher than could be comfortably reached and required a ladder and a nimble husband to hop about the tree!  I think my husband heard "Can you reach a bit further?  Just a bit more...?"  a few more times than he wanted to!  lol  After lots of adjustment and readjustment all of the pieces were in place securely and my husband was still in one piece too!

During the time I've been making these I've only had one or two hanging in the garden and seeing all 10 hung in the tree exceeded my expectations, the light playing on them through the trees and the sound of all of them rustling in the breeze was fantastic.  It's really difficult to capture moving video tape in a photo though!   

I hope these images give you an impression of the piece but, of course, the best way to experience the work is to go and enjoy it in the flesh as it were!  ;o)  Most of the pieces hang low enough to be interacted with by visitors and I hope they will get amongst them and really enjoy them. 

The exhibition runs for three weeks and I'm looking forward to seeing how much the pieces evolve over that time.  The process will be dictated by nature and I have no real idea of what will happen which is a very exciting part of the work. 

 

The exhibition opens this Saturday (29th May) with a Walk and Talk event at 2pm where all the artists will walk the route and each talk about their work.  Alot of the artists were still installing when we left on Saturday so I'm really looking forward to seeing and hearing about all the other artwork, it should be another exciting day.