IN-PERSON Barcelona. Section B

Abstract

The Orangery Urns (2018) was one of a series of temporary visual art projects commissioned for heritage properties in North East England as part of the 4-year research project ‘Mapping Contemporary Art in the Heritage Experience’ (2017-20). The research was a collaboration between visual artists, academics and three of the UK’s leading heritage organisations. It explored how the practice of siting contemporary art within heritage places impacts upon key stakeholders: public visitors, the heritage organisations who own the properties, and the artists who create the work. The research was practice-led, foregrounding the experiences of the artists. This paper explores my role as an artist in creating one of the project commissions, The Orangery Urns (2018) made for Gibside, a National Trust property in North East England. It examines first the conceptualisation and development of the commission, then discusses the background and context for the project, my initial response to the site, the creative process undertaken in the studio, the problematic issues involved in siting the work. The paper includes an appraisal by the National Trust team at Gibside of how the work impacted on their audiences, and their volunteers and a discussion of my response to some of the challenges, tensions and creative opportunities that developed into both a personal artistic journey and the collaborative, creative process that making the work entailed. The paper concludes by exploring how we went on to engage local stakeholders, including property staff, volunteers and visitors through workshops that generated other creative responses, and subsequently through further research into how a sustained and productive triangulation between artwork, property and visitors can be achieved.