Fork Ladders

David Nash – Multiple Unknown Locations – 1978

Photograph from ‘Wood Primer’ Book 1987

Material: Wood

Trail: Bogle Crag Trail

Theme: Modern Life

Form: Realism

Maps Featured on: ?

Status: Decommissioned

Alongside the Willow Ladders, Nash apparently also made several other ladders in Grizedale, as he explains here:

“Split large forked branches, joined the two halves together with rungs to form a ladder image. Made several and sited them deep in the forest in quiet, undisturbed spaces, pinning them to the ground with metal rods. Not happy with the need for metal rods.” This quote is taken from Aspects Journal of Contemporary Art #7 (1979)

Photograph Taken June 2019

You can see the maquettes of these ladders in the topmost photograph. One maquette can also be seen in the photograph above. This now sited in the Grizedale Arts office in Coniston.

From ‘A Sense of Place’ Book 1984

There is a small diagram of one of these ladders in A Sense of Place from 1984. Top Left is ‘Fork Ladder’. These were made out of dead wood rather than living trees. They are not listed on the 1981 map, I am not sure they were listed on any maps. Either they did not last that long or were just temporary experiments, (or were so well hidden no one found them). As for the locations of these ladders, that is a complete mystery.

Artist’s other work in Grizedale –

Running Table – 1978

Willow Ladders – 1978

Horned Tripod – 1978

Wooden Waterway – 1978

Sweeping Larch Enclosure – 1978

A Meeting of Ways – 1981

David Nash Return to the Forest Exhibition – 2021

Page last updated April 2020