Nicholas Beaumont

Art lovers gathered at Chamber Farm Woods this weekend to take part in an art installation celebrating Lincoln’s Charter of the Forest.

The project, created by the Lincoln Art Programme, complimented the Charter of the Forest Exhibition currently at the The Collection and Usher Art Gallery, showcasing work commissioned to highlight the impact of the Charter of the Forest – an important medieval document that gave people the right to use common land.

The work shown included a piece by art group Via Vaudeville! featuring a charcoal burner giving out smoke signals inspired by traditional protest songs, as well as a unique walkie-talkie led tour by Townley & Bradby and James, requiring participates to radio in to talk with their tour guides.

“We developed this project after initially being invited by The Collection, who devised the concept of developing an art project in the woodland,” Lincoln Art Programme Curator Alan Armstrong explained.

“We spent some time initially walking around the site, trying to think about which artists could utilize this site in relation to their own practice.Then we had a long process to source the appropriate artists and develop new work.”

Armstrong noted a highlight to the project was an installation by Tereza Buskova, who placed a huge billboard in the middle of the forest, exploring the mythology of the woodland in English History.

“The billboard is an example of how we can show 2D work in a wood without being completely lost,” he said.

“Hopefully [this project] will reach new people, and get audience’s to experience things in new places. That’s one of the key aims of the Lincoln Art Foundation.”

Artist Richard de DeDomenici also seemed keen to bring art outside the gallery: “It’s interesting getting work that would usually be placed in a gallery and transporting it into the wildness. I think that’s when magic can happen, when you juxtapose something or put something in an unusual space.”

Dedomenici’s artwork was directing a film which including furry toy animals and patrons as the cast. “It’s furry animal film,” he explained. “We have 5 main character. Fox, the really intelligent one, Raven, Squirrel, a dear and two badgers. The badgers goes evil and the animals revolt.”

“I don’t want to give away the ending, but its the classic story of good versus evil,” he added. The film will be shown in part at the Monk’s Gallery in October.

Having such an varied collection in an unusual location seemed to please everyone, including Patron James Phaily, who noted “it brings art to the outside community. People who wouldn’t usually enjoy the cliquey environment in art shows may come here and find things that may help them think about life and political issues.

“Everyone I have spoken to seems to have had a good time, with no preconceived ideas. they just participated and enjoyed the event,” he added.

The main Charter of the Forest Exhibition will be at the Usher Art Gallery and The Collection until September.

Photos: Kelly Moore for The Lincolnite

Lincolnshire poet Michael Blackburn has recently released his latest chapbook Pocket Venus. The Lincolnite caught up with him to talk about the collection.

Blackburn, a part time lecturer at the University of Lincoln, explained that the poems in Pocket Venus started as a project three years ago to write a poem a day.

He said: “There’s a couple of reasons I did that. One was just to get writing regularly. The other was to have something that was there as a kind of commemoration for each day. I’m now in my fourth year of doing this.”

The collection of twenty two miniscule poems cover a wide variety of themes. “I like writing poetry that I would like to read,” Blackburn reveals “Variety not just in subject matter, but in technique.

“I think most poets start out trying different things, then settle on a way of writing and follow it, so people tend to do things very much in the same way. I like it when people go against that.”

He continues: “I apply a number of techniques and approaches. It isn’t just writing a poem about a subject, which is the traditional way.

“Sometimes they are just single images, or they may be taken from found material. Sometimes they don’t seem to have any context, and at other times the context is quite clear.”

Blackburn went on to talk about his influences, citing European poetry as particularly inspiring. “The European poets of the 20th century are just stunningly good” he says.

“They really put into stark contrast the poetry in Britain. There is a huge amount we can learn from them.”

Blackburn also reveals Lincoln itself has proven to be a source of inspiration: “In many poems I refer to things I have seen and heard here.”

He goes on: “There is a bigger project I have been working on for a number of years that is more specifically do with Lincolnshire, its history and geography. Lincoln’s landscape fascinates me. God knows when it will be realised.”

Blackburn has no plans to stop his poem-a-day marathon: “If I carry on doing this until I kick the bucket, there will be a considerable amount of work there.”

Copies of Pocket Venus are available from The Red Ceilings Press’s website: http://www.theredceilingspress.co.uk/