What do you get when you combine east London’s most respected and radical crucible of creativity with an historic West Country estate that includes several thousand acres of the ancient Forest of Dean? The answer is the Blackrock Artist Residency Programme, which was unveiled in glorious autumnal sunshine last weekend. This new venture has been cooked up by Robin Klassnik, the founding director of Matt’s Gallery, and Rupert Bathurst who is the fourth Viscount Bledisloe and scion of the Lydney Park Estate. The duo are aiming to “create a centre of excellence in the arts” by funding artists residencies at Lydney in a markedly different environment to Matt’s Gallery’s grittier home in Mile End.
Blackrock got off to a flying start with a posse of Londoners bussed in to admire the work of Blackrock’s first four artists, which had been made in response to the extraordinary location. Roy Voss has installed his “Riot” sign in the rhododendron gardens and his giant paintings of walls and curtains in the village hall. A projection by David Cheeseman in the baronial mansion house shows him lying across the blocks of green oak that he has installed in the nearby ruins of a Roman temple complex. Rebecca Birch presented a live piece about the local mines amongst towering piles of black rapeseed in a corrugated-iron potato barn.
There was also the chance to roam in the magical, otherworldly Forest of Dean accompanied by Bronwen Buckeridge’s audio piece in which the sound of local witches staging a ritual to welcome back the wild boar—which have returned to the forest after centuries—rings in your ears. (One’s relationship with the local fauna was somewhat complicated after the welcome lunch of wild boar sausages and venison burgers sourced from the estate.) Another treat was an encounter in a cavernous barn with Susan Hiller’s major 104-screen work titled Channels (2013), which was originally commissioned by Matt’s Gallery and has just returned to the UK after a worldwide tour. With its disembodied voices recounting near-death experiences this magnificent, uncanny piece seemed utterly appropriate to its new setting in one of the UK’s most magical but also sometimes disquieting corners. This Blackrock artists’ work (and Hiller’s piece) was only on show for the weekend, but the programme are actively seeking new applicants—and more significantly funders—to continue the scheme. May the boar continue to roam and art continue to flourish at Blackrock!
