FRED’s blog

Artists have visited and found places to put their art. All we have to do now is convince the people who own the land that it’s a good idea.

Oh, and this weekend I have to climb up Stickle Ghyll to collect a bag of whatever I can find up there - grass, twigs, sheep droppings - and post them to London. This is easily the weirdest job I’ve ever had.

Whilst surfing online I found this site which hosts in some detail a wonderful piece that is in a forest in Kent. It looks like a logistical nightmare, but worth it.

http://www.scoreforaholeintheground.org/

…amongst other things. Is there a subliminal link between FRED and Sheep. I think we should be told.

Go here for more information.

Today I will be popping across to Kendal to try and convince a local Charity Shop to let us buy some stock, turn it into bags, exhibit it in the shop and then sell them. Have already supervised the site visit of one artist with complete success. The proprietor can’t wait to have it and helped the artist along by telling her some local stories that will feed into the back story of the piece. Two more artists coming north this weekend to have a look around, which could involve me cooking pasta and hosting a bit of a party. The trials of art. Bryan.

A friend saw this in Avignon and thought it looked cool. Bricks have been scraped away to reveal small chambers which locals have used to display various things - some savoury, some less so. Looks a bit like the kind of thing FRED might do…

So, after:

1. finally finding someone who wanted a tree on the side of their house
2. Paul and Steve managed to find a computer old enough to create file the stencil cutter could use
3. Paul managed to eject the Bowls team long enough to lay out the card on the floor

the day finally came when we put up the Willow Tree. It took about 4 hours and was much admired by the dog walkers and nosey neighbours. Les seemed particularly fond of it, which I’m sure you’ll agree is great relief. His dog seemed less certain. We then explained it’s a picture of a tree by a drainpipe. You’re a dog, what’s not to like?

Paul was chuffed to (well, he kept going “hee hee” after we took each bit of cardboard down).

And the rain held off. So what does it look like:

With FRED 2006 now up and running, I thought I’d give some background to some of the 36+ projects going on. Starting with the Boar beside Wild Boar Fell.

over 500 fleeces, mostly swaledale, were used to create the hill drawing. On the Wednesday a team of volunteers from Blackburn aided artist Jan Hicks and fellow FRED artists Helen Fletcher and Steve Messam to get the bulk of the laying out done. Jan had previously marked out a grid of 4 metre squares in blue bailer twine. The fleece was pegged into the ground with bamboo pegs and willow withies. A couple of Llamas helped transport the fleece up the 50 minute hike to the site, the rest being brought up by quad-bike and trailer.

The piece was completed by Jan and Helen the following day. The piece is best viewed in the afternoon when the sun picks up the white fleeces and it positively glows. The best view is obtained by walking up the path to Wild Boar Fell from the Tommy Road. After only 15 minutes walk, the Boar really starts to loom large above. At 120 metres across, the Wild Boar is only the second largest hill drawing in the UK (after the Whipsnade Lion).

Bryan writes -

There’s a great project here . Small pictures of cows are let loose with the website on the back. On finding one, you log on and register it. You can then pass the thing on or keep it. I found one a couple of years ago stuck to a cashpoint.

Brilliant.

Bryan writes -

Since taking on this co-ordinating for FRED I’ve learnt a lot and thought it might make sense to pass some of it on:

• You learn more by sitting on a selection panel for one day, than you would by doing a three day course in proposal writing.
• Artists are generally serious about what they do, even if the work is light-hearted or even laugh out lout funny.
• People do want to be involved and are basically quite generous. What they don’t want is surprises.
• Unprofessional artists make it harder for everyone. This is especially true of people who let down people who have given their time or property over for no remuneration. Some of them even argu for a piece of work in their own organisations and end up feeling foolish for doing so. The next artist along will have a hard time convincing them that they are serious and reliable.
• It’s easier to convince prospective hosts if you can show them what the work might look like. It’s what Photoshop’s for.
• It’s amazing what you can achieve in a short space of time. FRED this year has been done at breakneck speed, but it willhappen and people will talk about it.
• There’s always another phone call to make/email to send. And if you do make that call, it will lead to two more. This never ends.

Banksy may have taken L.A. by storm, but my favourite intervention this week has to be the German art student who foxed Chinese police by disguising himself as a terracotta warrior and taking up position in the world-famous terracotta army.

Pablo Wendel was seen jumping into the five-metre deep pit to join the 2,000 unearthed warriors and horses by local police. The sudden movement of the shadowy figure startled the six police officers on duty, who rushed over and followed Wendel into the pit.

However, the artist had come prepared. He had carried out a reconnaissance mission a few days earlier and had selected a spot among the warriors that would give him the most cover. He had also designed himself a gown and hat, identical to those once worn by Emperor Qinshihuang’s warriors, in Hangzhou in east China where he currently studies performance art, and even brought a rectangular plinth to stand on. After leaping into the pit, he quickly donned his costume and waited.

Police said it took them ages to find the “living terracotta warrior”, clad in military garb and staring straight ahead with unblinking eyes. The police officers tried to force him to leave but Wendel persisted with his pose, defiant to the end. Eventually, the police were forced to carry him out, still in character.
Wendel, whose Chinese name is Ma Lin, said that he has been crazy about the terracotta warriors since childhood. “I have always dreamed of disguising myself as a terracotta warrior among the real ones,” he explained.

Police considered that as Wendel’s actions did not cause any damage to the cultural relics and he was clearly passionate about the warriors, it only warranted “serious criticism and education”. His outfit was also confiscated and he was sent back to Hangzhou that evening.

China’s really not the place to pull bold performance stunts. Art is hardly top of their political agendas, and besides, the police carry very large guns. That said, it certainly adds a new dimension to those tedious “living statue” buskers popular on the continent. Oh, how we laugh when they move…

source: www.shanghaidaily.cn

FRED this year features, among many others, a new hill drawing. Wiltshire is famed for its chalk horses on the downs, and many of them can be seen for miles away. Despite their iconic presence, most of the hill drawings in the UK are less than 100 years old. The art of drawing things big on the hills is not a lost art-form. The differences between Wiltshire and the outer reaches of the dales, however, is one of sheer scale. A 20 metre horse on lush green rolling hills in the lowlands of the south of England, will be no more than a spec on our vast wilderness.

But we’re not alone in our attempt to make a mark on a bigger landscape. Painted in whitewash on a mountainside north west of the border city of Ciudad Juarez by local architect Hector García Acosta and his son Carlos, it is a huge reproduction of the Uffington horse (original in Wiltshire). This horse is over half a mile long, and took three years to complete. García Acosta said that he created the figure both as a problem-solving exercise and to draw the attention of passing townsfolk to the beauty of the mountains. Sounds familiar?