Title: ‘New Trees and Old’
Description: A 19th century regimental silver table centre surrounded by a layer cake modelled in the form of a view of the land around Burnley, taken from a ‘Pride of Burnley’ photographic competition entry by Angela Grimes.
Rationale: Burnley is as much a rural as a post-industrial place. It is still scaled to the surrounding landscape: fields and hills are only a couple of miles from any street in town. Part of the reason for this was the type and period Burnley’s industrialisation. Lead and coal were only ever extracted here in comparatively small quantities, whilst weaving was space-efficient, even at the height of production. Consequently, the town feels comfortable in it’s location. Its outlying villages retain direct traces of older histories whilst its hills and valleys remain beautiful: destinations for contemporary leisure pursuits. ‘New Trees and Old’ appears to embed a 19th century fantasy tree from the Towneley collections (made as part of the social/ceremonial kit of the Lancashire Regiment) in a new physical representation of the landscape. The cake both suggests the strata of the Namurian coal-bearing geology of Burnley and provides a startling new image of the countryside, re-articulating the relationship between Crown Hill and the popular new ‘Singing Ringing Tree’ sculpture.
Description: A 19th century regimental silver table centre surrounded by a layer cake modelled in the form of a view of the land around Burnley, taken from a ‘Pride of Burnley’ photographic competition entry by Angela Grimes.
Rationale: Burnley is as much a rural as a post-industrial place. It is still scaled to the surrounding landscape: fields and hills are only a couple of miles from any street in town. Part of the reason for this was the type and period Burnley’s industrialisation. Lead and coal were only ever extracted here in comparatively small quantities, whilst weaving was space-efficient, even at the height of production. Consequently, the town feels comfortable in it’s location. Its outlying villages retain direct traces of older histories whilst its hills and valleys remain beautiful: destinations for contemporary leisure pursuits. ‘New Trees and Old’ appears to embed a 19th century fantasy tree from the Towneley collections (made as part of the social/ceremonial kit of the Lancashire Regiment) in a new physical representation of the landscape. The cake both suggests the strata of the Namurian coal-bearing geology of Burnley and provides a startling new image of the countryside, re-articulating the relationship between Crown Hill and the popular new ‘Singing Ringing Tree’ sculpture.
