Horn and Nest

• Wire
• Installation
• East Midlands

'Horn' and 'Nest' are installed in ash trees at the entrance to the Bourne Wood Sculpture Trail near Grantham in Lincolnshire. The Nest is one metre across and made with copper wire and willow. It is woven with a random weave to create a spinning movement around the surface. It sits comfortably in the branches of the tree.

The Horn is eight metres long, diminishing in width and is woven formally, using copper strips and willow woven round micro-bore copper tubing. The Horn’s long, thin, moving form complements the Nest, it winds round the tree like one of the strands of willow woven into the nest. The sculptures are designed to complement and contrast each other. Their large scale and simplified features give viewers the chance to interpret them in different ways.

The Nest is similar to the smaller willow balls Clare has made previously. The Bourne foresters said these were like the squirrel dreys in the Wood. Though it partly imitates a squirrel drey, Clare has developed the form so that it is more ambiguous as to which creature could have made it.

In the adjacent tree Clare created the long tapering tube that encircles the tree trunk. Clare opened up one end so that the viewer can peer inside and thereby engage more directly with the sculpture. The resulting form, enhanced by the polished copper, could be a giant primitive musical instrument such as a horn. This suggests human presence in the Wood whereas the Nest suggests animals. The deer are still culled in Bourne Wood but no longer by a full scale hunt with its accompanying horn. The sculpture’s swooping shape could alternatively suggest the hornpipe dance or simply the horn on an animal’s head.

On another level I want the sculptures to be appreciated as simple organic shapes that reflect the techniques that I have used to work with these particular materials.