In Steps of Sundew
From: 25th July 2020 10:00 am
To: 15th January 2021 4:00 pm
Fermynwoods Contemporary Art
A brand new group exhibition focussing on our experience of landscape
Hashtag
About
Ikran Abdille
Tom Baskeyfield
Sarah Gillett
Ellie Harrison
Liz Lake
Onya McCausland
10am – 4pm
Saturday 25 July, Sunday 26 July
Saturday 1 August, Sunday 2 August
Then daily from Monday 3 August
In Steps of Sundew is a brand new exhibition focussing on our experience of landscape, exploring the push and pull between nature and human presence and the effect that extracting resources from the landscape has upon those living within it.
Sundew was the name of the largest walking dragline excavator in the world, used in mining operations in Rutland and Northamptonshire between 1957 and 1980. In 1974 plans were devised to relocate the machine to a recently opened British Steel Corporation quarry near Corby. As moving and reconstructing the machine was not viable, Sundew walked 13 miles over an eight-week period. During the walk Sundew carried the message on her rear of “EXCUSE ME, I’m walking to Corby”, crossing three water mains, four watercourses, 13 power lines, ten roads, a railway line, two gas mains, seven telephone lines, 74 hedges, and the River Welland before reaching its new home.
Sundews are also species of carnivorous plants, which digest insects through the glands on their leaves in order to supplement the poor mineral nutrition of the soil in which they grow.
In Steps of Sundew retraces the movement of people and resources from the landscape as well as the dragline excavator’s Great Walk, posing questions about the relationship between the natural and the industrial and how these might coexist whilst avoiding climate breakdown.
