What do you do to unwind after organising an exhibition?

Visit an exhibition of course! After moving countless loads of twigs yesterday, I meandered over to Unity Woods near Redruth in the afternoon to see an exhibition of 3 artists' site specific work. Alison Sharkey, Steven Paige and Sovay Berriman subtly infiltrated the dark spaces with some thought provoking installations. In the mega clean up of the car this morning I appear to have thrown out the map of the installations with the titles on, but I can remember a couple of them...Steven's 'Dig' was an archaeological dig in a small clearing; Sovay's 'Sally' was a large piece of narrative, that had you thinking about sinister goings on in the vicinity and another of her pieces called Tom's Cabin was installed in what could have been the remains of a cabin, but now it's only got some tumble down walls and a chimney... Alison's pieces had titles that I can't remember - except one of them had the word 'pan' in it! (I am feeling very slack today!). Anyhow, here's a few pictures of the work:

This work of Alison's (above) was installed down a mine shaft; at the end of the oscillating, fluorescent 'ropes' (a long, long way down) were 3 barely visible plastic birds - the kind children fly. You could easily have missed this piece, if you didn't glimpse the strange fluorescent glow, or hear the low vibrations of the birds. It was one of my favourite pieces in the show. I liked the way you had to look down on a flying bird making you feel like a bird yourself, and they looked like they were flying in formation, so you wondered where they were headed and what was in the darkness below. Her other piece (left) also explored a mine shaft, this time with the blackness seeping out from below like a sinister, treacly river.

The two works above are by Sovay. I really liked the narrative piece Sally (left) because seeing text in an unusual context gives you different ways of finding meaning and associations. When you read the text you really imagine that the character is lying in this wood somewhere and wonder whether you ought to be looking for her! I'm not sure about the presentation of the piece though: I wonder what it would have felt like/looked like if it was made to look more like an official sign? It's interesting because you wonder whether the work really only exists in your imagination...

The picture on the left shows part of Steven's installation Dig. It was set out like an archaeological dig that was confined to the surface - if you dig deep around here, you'll end up in a tunnel or a shaft! At the other end of the dig was a one man tent, complete with sleeping bag that a friend took a cat nap in for a while! Curiously, things that had been 'dug up' on the surface were mainly broken toys - what on earth were they doing all the way out here in the deep, dark wood? And why were fallen trees laid in a circle (not Steven's doing!)? His installation really made you think about what people had used the space for as well as what's so often on the surface that we miss, clues to meanings, fragments... I really loved the way this piece made me think.

It was a great way to unwind. Definitely more fun than clearing up all the twigs and other remnants of the bower that are all over the house and garden in disarray. What am I going to do with it all now?! If anyone else wants to exhibit it, let me know!

Links to Sovay and Steven's websites are in the column on the left (listed under Artists).