Sculpture in Woodland Commissions, Devil’s Glen Wood, Ashford, Co. Wicklow

Two commissions are supported by Wicklow County Council under this strand and will be independently commissioned and administered by Sculpture in Woodland as part of their pre-defined programme that continues through to 2008. Details of the current research led programme is available on Sculpture in Woodland’s website. Two commissions are supported by Wicklow County Council under this strand and will be independently commissioned and administered by Sculpture in Woodland as part of their pre-defined programme that continues through to 2008. Details of the current research led programme is available on Sculpture in Woodland’s website www.sculptureinwoodland.ie.

Sculpture in Woodland was formed in 1995 to help create a greater awareness of wood as an artistic and functional medium. Set in 600 acres of woodland, Devil’s Glen is a Coillte managed forest where Sculpture in Woodland provides artists with the resources and support necessary to create works of artistic excellence in a natural environment. Sculpture in Woodland has to date commissioned nineteen Irish and International artists to work in wood and other natural materials sourced mainly in the Glen.

Arts education initiatives for Co. Wicklow schools are developed alongside the commissioning programme, giving students the opportunity to respond to the natural environment of the Glen. Along the public walks that lead through the Glen and along the Vartry River to the Devil’s Glen Waterfall, previously commissioned sculptures can be seen.

Sculpture in Woodland is kindly supported by Coillte, the Forest Service, Wicklow County Arts Office, The Arts Council and the Department of Agriculture and Food.

Suky Best is one of two artists independently commissioned and administered by Sculpture in Woodland as part of their pre defined programme that continues through to 2008.

Stone Voices Suky Best

Stone Voices is a collection of texts cut into stone from real and imagined stories and events that have taken place in the Devils Glen, Ashford, County Wicklow. The textual inspiration for the collection was sourced mainly onsite from people who use the Glen on a regular basis.

Written in the present tense the stories are intended to be always happening. They are like ghosts, living and relating to their own time however, also accompanying you as you walk through and around the Glen. The texts are deliberately ambiguous to suggest several interpretations.

The stones have been placed as near as possible to the sites they relate to, emphasising the experience of the stories origin. Like the stories behind them, the locations of the stones is such that some are easily happened upon whilst others are more challenging to find. This retains the element of surprise that is integral to the experience of the work.

The stories that inspired the stones are a mix of personal and observational tales as well as that of darker events that have taken place in and around the Glen over its history. In the coming years it is hoped that the work will become increasingly part of the Glen’s seasonal cycle as the surrounding plants and foliage grow to conceal the stones during the spring and summer, temporarily reclaiming the stories that inspired them, only to be revealed again as winter approaches.

As an artist Best's experience of the forest focuses on it's detail, from the tiny fronds of moss to the minute veins on leaves. This detailed observation is intrinsic to the work and is something that the artist has reflected in these discreet artistic interventions.

Like any forest, The Devil’s Glen will eventually reclaim all that is placed within it. This body of work attempts to embrace this force of nature; the works are intended to be enhanced by the aging and assimilation that takes place. The stones will weather and age in the Glen, each absorbing the colour of their surroundings as water and plants cause staining. Over time each stone will develop its own particular character. Some of the gilded text will remain bright whereas others will dull and tarnish. In the years to come the lichens and mosses will envelop the stones, the golden texts remaining like an echo.