Lowther Castle is to host dramatic visual art installation called ‘OR’ between the 19th April - 6th May, 2024
Following the runaway success of Ten Thousand Daffodils last year, Lowther Castle & Gardens has today announce that it will host a follow-up charity fund-raising event in the gardens at Lowther Castle later in the spring.
The event will be hosted by Lowther Castle & Gardens Trust under the chairmanship of Bryan Gray CBE and will benefit three charities: James’ Place, Restore and the Lowther Church Restoration Fund.
The installation OR - so called because the Lowther crest is based round the colour gold - has been put together by County Durham based artist Steve Messam. It was he who created PaperBridge in Grizedale (a functioning packhorse bridge made from 22,000 sheets of red ‘poppy’ paper) and more recently Hush which filled a lead-mining scar in the North Pennines with over five kilometres of fabric.
Steve, whose work seeks to ‘explore and uncover the layers of narrative within the rural environment’, says of OR: ‘When I was invited to look at Lowther Castle as a site for a large-scale installation, I was immediately drawn to the South Lawns. Unlike many prospects for stately houses, these lawns slope down towards (not away from) the castle. We are installing 520 gold flags across all these lawns. Each flag will measure up to 2.5m wide and 1.5m high and will fly from simple aluminium poles at a height of between 3m and 5m. The variation in height will add to the visual mass, while a subtle variation in colour in the flags will create texture. Overall, the display will measure around 320m x 45m, creating an installation of a scale rarely seen – over 5 times the size of the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in London.’
‘The experience of coming to the gardens and walking among these flags will be highly sensory. Not only do the flags create a mass of colour but they will also crack with the wind. Visitors who walk to the top of the installation will gain an incredible view of the castle at the bottom of the slope, standing proud in a sea of gold. All materials, after the event, will be recycled.’
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