Scale Green Birdman

David Kemp –  Scale Green – 1981

This is the oldest photo of it from ‘A Sense of Place’ Book 1984 by Mark Prior

Alternate Titles: Departure Lounge

Material: Wood

Trail: Silurian Way

Theme: Building

Form: Representational – House

Maps Featured on: ?, 1984 – 1994

Status: Decommissioned

Quote from the Artist: “Birdman’s hut, my favourite piece… I had abandoned the marked trails and wandered the secret spaces behind the trees… This piece was made entirely from wind-blown timber and items found in forest dumps. it is located in a remote clearing, looking to the mountains. Hopefully it will disintegrate gently with time, and its dereliction contribute to its poignancy.”

“The birdman is a future relic. Combining myths relics from a distant technological past… The hut is abandoned the birdman has flown away. The remains of his earthly abode are decaying, but still reminiscent of his erstwhile magic… Birds now inhabit the hut. Nature gently takes over the old place of power. They blend together as the seasons go by and will, sometime, be one again.”

This was a small shack that you could enter just off the main trail at Scale Green. “A double bird box on a pole marks the entrance to a track. The bird boxes at intervals on the trees lead to Scale Green Birdman.” – Early 1984 Map. It was filled with all sorts of wires and weird machinery. Description from ‘A Sense of Place’ 1984 – “Junk found in farmyard dumps – a mixture of glass bottled windows, discarded guts of old tv sets, with the driving seat and controls from scrap farm tractors.”

From ‘A sense of place’ 1984

Further colour photographs of which can be seen David Kemp’s website here. In 1987 there was a terrible storm which blew down almost all of the surrounding trees. It was mentioned that the hut was also damaged at this point, but it remained standing so I’m not sure what the damage was.

From ‘Grizedale Experience’ 1991 by Mike Oram

“Once hidden deep in the forest, the recent storms has felled the trees and literally ‘blown its cover’. This sculpture was designed to fall in on itself in time, and form its own burial mound, ringed and marked for future discovery by a foundation of large stones. The hut now stood conspicuously on a forest ridge, and as the Forestry Commision replanted the area, they removed the sculpture to prevent visitors walking over the new plantations. – Kemp 2017

It was listed until the 1994 map.

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Artist’s other work in Grizedale –

The Heron – 1981

Rook Crossing – 1981

Deer Hunter – 1982

The Wood Winders – 1984

Forest Fugue – 1984

Ancient Forester 1 – 1987

Ancient Forester 2 – 1995

Exhibition – 1984

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Artist’s Website: www.davidkemp.uk.com

 

Page last updated April 2020