Alchamies
Site-specific Installation for Pendle Sculpture Trail, Pendle, England. 2019.
This work was a public art commission for Pendle Borough Council in Lancashire, UK for a public sculpture trail. The work was designed in response to this specific site famous for the Pendle Witch Trials of 1612. Here, ten people - nine females and one male - were hanged for the crime of witchcraft. These handmade, moulded ceramic objects represent and remember each person, while the applied surface design of the objects is derived from symbols related to alchemy and magic.
The sculpture also functions as a cluster of wildlife shelters for the ecological populations of the woodlands. The work aims to remember the darker history of the area while encouraging the audience to take notice of the natural beauty of the woodlands and landscape. It is hoped that this sculptural intervention will be used by birds and tree dwelling mammals as nesting sites over time.
Read more about the sculpture trail here.