Arty in the Park

A sculptural form can create a spectacular focal point in a contemporary garden - but only when the art, nature, site and science work in harmony, says Helen Chislett.

At its best, when you put sculpture and a garden together, you have a sum greater than the parts. In the right setting, the right piece will look superlative, but you can ruin a wonderful garden design with an unsympathetic work. It is a minefield through which you had best tread softly, as the eminent landscape designer Randle Siddeley points out: "My horror is when I finish a garden after many months or years of work, only for the clients to say they are going to add a piece of sculpture. We might have achieved the most beautiful design imaginable only for them to ruin it with the addition of some horrible thing. It is a car-crash moment?'

Not that Siddeley is against sculpture. He is a huge fan of contemporary artists such as Andy Goldsworthy, who achieves spectacular effects by the manipulation of natural materials. He is also a passionate enthusiast of the works of past masters such as Rodin, Giacometti or Ben Nicholson. Siddeley himself has designed many sculptural features for gardens, among them a wall of water in Tel Aviv to blot out an ugly view and a wall in the South of France, decorated in the style of Miró, as a backdrop for a swimming pool. Obelisks, urns and pots are also part of his palette, and laser technology allows exact copies of classic examples. What he is keen to resist is the arbitrary addition of a sculptural form which bears no relation to the scale or character of the garden that surrounds it. "Sculpture works when you walk around a corner and discover it suddenly, or when you set it into a slightly wild landscape, overlooking fields or trees." he says. "What you don't want is something painted brilliant white and centrally placed, so that it kills the harmony of everything else."

Acclaimed artist William Pye could not agree more. Over the past 40 years he has been commissioned to produce works for many fine gardens, belonging to such eminent clients as the Prince of Wales, Lord and Lady Carrington, Sir Richard Carew Pole, members of the Sainsbury family and the Duchess of Northumberland: "When it works, it is the combination of sculpture and landscape that is so special. I don't create pieces in isolation. In one garden, the starting point was great cylinders of yew, quite severe, which reminded me of oil drums. It seemed obvious to place among the trees a stainless-steel cylinder of the same size and shape, down which water continually rolls. It's the simplest of ideas but very effective."

Water has been integral to Pye's work for many years: "The wonderful thing about it is that it moves and reflects light, so as a sculptural material it is fantastic. If you are standing by a lake with a beautiful reflection, it is quite difficult to get agitated because water has such a calming effect." However, the client has to commit to maintenance: "It is not just a question of providing the object - engineering is required to make sure that water stays clear and fresh, not stagnant."

When Pye first visits a client and garden, he makes copious notes and sketches of the location, hard landscaping, planting, scale and surrounding architecture. He is well aware that commissioning can be a stressful one for both parties involved: "One of my works could cost six figures, but although the client has sketches to approve, they won't actually see the finished object until it arrives and is installed. That is quite a leap of faith to make.

Commissioning a work of art involves a partnership - you go on an adventure together. The more a client is prepared to trust you and go down a certain route with you, the happier the partnership is likely to be. The ideal patron is one who gives me licence to do something a bit risky, because together we will create something that's original and unique."




While water remains Pye's signature material, light is now providing a new generation of sculptors with the same sort of excitement. At the Cass Sculpture Foundation in Goodwood, Sussex, recent commissions include Martin Griffiths' light sculpture ST1-LW5, a progression from his maquettes, Light and DB1-LW6; and Tim Morgan's Cypher and Vein, both of which make use of glass rods that refract sunlight inside stainless-steel forms. Co-founder and chairman Wilfred Cass says that this is just the beginning: "We commission about 20 new pieces each year for Goodwood, but we are always trying to think five or six years into the future, because it can take about three years for a piece to come to fruition. We pride ourselves on showing really innovative work, because we are regarded as the authority on British contemporary sculpture. We advised on the King's Cross development and on the new Wembley stadium, and currently we are looking forward to exhibiting about 40-50 pieces for the Olympics."

Cass thinks this is a particularly exciting moment in the history of sculpture "Because artists are working with computers more and working out how to do something digitally, it is now possible to make some very complicated forms. Sometimes we commission an artist first and then develop the technology with them to enable the idea to come to fruition. Wells Small's work Nigh Eve is a good example, allowing him to bend glass at a scale most people would not dare to attempt." Tony Cragg's Tongue In Cheek is another example of an artist experimenting with new methods on traditional techniques and Bryan Kneale's Triton 3 uses an innovative modular approach that allows the sculpture to be remodelled in situ.

For those interested in commissioning a piece of truly contemporary sculpture for their own garden, Cass advises a visit to Goodwood, or any other of the UK's excellent sculpture parks, first: "For about £10, you can come and see about 60 large pieces and 70 maquettes featuring the best of what is around - a way of getting your eye in, so to speak. You can even commission through us, but because we are a charity we are not interested in whether you buy or not so you won't be under any pressure. If you go to an artist's studio, you may feel 'locked in' but here you can see the best work on offer by a whole stable of well-regarded artists." There are no rules as to how to make that selection. Cass says it comes from the heart: "A good piece of sculpture is like a good piece of music. It either sings for you or it doesn't."





Organic shapes are also an important and influential trend that he cites, with recent examples at Goodwood including Steve Dilworth's Claw and Tony Cragg's I'm Alive. Eilís O'Connell's Loop, exhibited outside Wembley Stadium last year, arrives in 2009. Peter Randall-Page, an established force in the world of sculpture, has long been interested in the patterns and forms of nature, particularly those evident in the botanical: "It is a question of observing and understanding the underlying structures which make a plant so efficient - exposing as many leaves as it can to light, for example, or fitting as many seeds onto a seed head as it can. These principles come back to mathematical and geometric structures, which recently have interested me most. I am also preoccupied with the tension between that sense of perfect order and the reality that nothing is in fact perfect."




Recent works have included the gigantic Seed for the Eden Project, constructed from Cornish granite; at 70 tons it is heavier than any of the stones at Stonehenge. One of the commissions Randall-Page is now working on is a 6m-high granite sculpture to sit in the Capability Brown landscape of the Jerwood Foundation garden at Ragley Hall, Warwickshire. Scale is crucial to the success of a piece, in his opinion: "Getting the right-sized object in the right place is incredibly important, but also difficult to do. You have to think about the object's relationship to the human body and to the landscape it is going to sit within - the impact of a work is not just the work itself, but also the relationship between the sculpture and the place." When it comes to private commissions, his favourites are those where he is asked to design the garden as well as provide the sculpture: "When you put something outside, it is not like putting it in a white gallery space. It is so much more satisfying and fun when you have had the chance to design the garden too. I have had clients who have come to the studio to commission a sculpture, but then in conversation it becomes clear that what they really don't like in their garden is an aggressive slope or blocked view - I might need to sculpt the garden before creating the sculpture."

However, if this sounds appealing you had better learn to be patient: at present Randall-Page is working on commissions due in 2010. He does, however, have studio pieces for sale: "It's true that commissioning something for a particular place ensures a personal relationship with both client and place, which is satisfying to me as an artist. But it could be that you'll find the right thing for the right place by visiting artists' studios, and that also has its advantages - you can see exactly what you are getting and have access to it much faster." Clients should expect to pay somewhere between £30,000 and £100,000 for one of Randall-Page's studio works.

If the natural is the prime mover among artists at present, there is another important trend, which is currently making the transition from gallery to garden: "design-art", works created by designers but with artistic intent. This summer, Sudeley Castle, home to Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst and her family, is hosting a major new exhibition in its grounds called "The Artists' Playground". It is the fourth contemporary art event that Mollie has curated here, and is by far the most ambitious: "My own background is in contemporary art she opened the first London-based Gagosian Gallery in London nine years ago and initially it was a way of trying to bring both my worlds together Sudeley and art Also the contemporary art world seemed very urban, while sculpture in the garden was mainly of the traditional bronze type. It struck me that what would be interesting was to show the lightness and elegance of some of the work being produced around the world, in the setting of a house with real history."

She and co-curator Elliot McDonald of Hiscox Art Projects have included work by both artists and designers in this year's exhibition: a giant slide by Zaha Hadid, a flying machine by Carsten Höller, a mirrored labyrinth by Jeppe Hem and a Gothic tree-house by Henry Krokatsis among them. Maverick design dealer Kenny Schachter is responsible for the design elements and has brought in works by Tom Dixon, Arik Levy and Richard Woods; the exhibition is partnered by Phillips de Pury & Co.

The idea of "play" as a theme is one Dent-Brocklehurst feels is in perfect keeping with Sudeley as a family day out: "This is art that I hope people will warm to, because it really is family-friendly - you can touch it and interact with it. Also, using the whole of the gardens and grounds as an exhibition space means that each piece can stand alone, rather than being in formal juxtaposition as they would be in a conventional gallery. The show takes you on an artistic journey." She cites the environment as a major influence within the show: "The elements and science are all definite trends, because a lot of the artists are addressing current global concerns."

Although many of the exhibits will cost six figures to buy, some are as little as £5,000 to £15,000. Just as a visit to one of the established sculpture parks will open your eyes to artists and themes in the established art world, so a trip to Sudeley this summer promises to uncover rising stars as well as making that all-important link with the design-art movement. It seems that those interested in purchasing art for their own gardens now have a clear choice of direction: commissioning pieces that are site-specific and sympathetic, or turning the garden into a gallery space for heart-jolting, show-stopping work.

Article by Helen Chislett. Originally published in Financial Times: How To Spend It magazine, 5th July 2008.