Tim Stokes – Carron Crag – 1997
Material: Wood
Trail: Carron Crag Trail
Theme: Modern Life
Form: Representational – Chess Pieces
Maps Featured on: 1997 – 1999
Status: Removed
Positioned on a track that lead to a dead end just north of Carron Crag summit. The archive image above shows one half of the sculpture. It was mirrored on the other side of the road with the opposing red pieces, replicating a chess board. I never saw it at full height but it would have been very tall, each chess piece was a foot or more in size.
Quote Meg Falconer in 1996 discussing Stoke’s residency as a craftsman at Grizedale – “Tim Stoke’s residency produced a wealth of constructed, highly finished dramatic turned forms, many in blackened wood and gold leaf. The ceremonial artifacts of an ancient court, or one to come?” Perhaps these highly finished wood forms became the chess pieces here.
As I can’t find a photograph of it in its entirety I have photoshopped one together using the image above. (One thing I don’t know is whether the track in between was formed into a chess board at all).
It was listed on the 97 & 98 maps but gone by 2000. I went to find it in 2002, (after stumbling on Forest Fugue I realised sculptures no longer on maps were still in the forest). These were the remains I found.
All Photographs taken 2002
The posts had been chopped down, leaving the line of sawn off posts still in the ground, marking it’s exact location. The upright poles and chess pieces had been thrown to the side, and were becoming overgrown when I reached them, so had been like that for a while. (I pulled them out and cleaned them up to try to make sense of the artwork as I only knew the name of it as this point).
I can only assume it was taken down as it was positioned right at the edge of the track, perhaps forestry vehicles couldn’t get past it, or perhaps it had become unsafe in such a short period, as it would have been very tall. Nevertheless it would have been very dramatic to see close up.
Page Last Updated April 2020
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