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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-57169995
Not sure how I feel about this. They are clever and aesthetically pleasing but I go up mountains to be in a wild place and escape obvious human interference (yes, yes, sheep and denuded landscapes aside). I'd be pretty sad if my favourite wild escapes were dotted with exibits like an art gallery.
It's temporary (will probably collapse in the next big storm) and made from materials that are lying around, so I don't see a big problem with it. Saying that the rock stacks that people make are quite annoying due to the sheer number of them that appear. I have been known to knock them over and scatter the stones.
Leave.
No.
Trace
Which bit of the Lakedistrict is wild and devoid of human interference anyway...most of Englandshires perceived wild areas are artificial man-made corruptions of their true 'natural' form.
Those rocks presumably wouldn't be there in the first place if it weren't for a slate mine slag heap providing the raw material.
I quite like it and I doubt it will last. But it might be copied and end up everywhere. Like people piling/stacking rocks all over the place.
With managed paths and car parks the lakes is hardly an un-managed wilderness.
You might want to avoid our local hills...
That's class.
[i]Walker Rob Brown said he "stumbled" upon a "very impressive" arch while out with his dog[/i]
It sounds like they are a damned hazard and should be banned if walkers can "stumble" on them. Don't they know, walkers have rights!
[i]You might want to avoid our local hills…[/i]
At least they resisted painting it rainbow colours and claiming it for the NHS/LBGTQ/Any other rainbow associated group
Leave.
No.
Trace
Bit late for that really.
My issue here is I have had to clean up after some artists / Buddhists / hippies who think their art, messages hung from trees in plastic laminated tags (yes really), flags, wool wrapped trees etc should be left for us all to 'enjoy'.
I do see a key difference of natural materials and/or a 'community' decision to install some art, and one person who just decides to do something.
I think it's kind of cool but as above I really hope it doesn't spark a craze of every man and his dog having a bash. The stone stacking on some beaches/river areas is really OTT for me.
Like with many things, Instagram has a lot to answer for.
I agree - I think it’s the fact it encourages people to think it’s ok which is the problem, not these individual pieces. The Lakes is, in a lot of places, a post industrial landscape, but that still doesn’t make it ok I think.
Pesky sheep and their wool repairing the Black Mountains while creating unique art....
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/gardening-blog/2013/apr/17/woollen-line-pip-woolf
Best not look up Andy Goldsworthy then ...
Saying that the rock stacks that people make are quite annoying due to the sheer number of them that appear.
I do that with cairns - especially those where the stone has been taken from an adjacent stone wall.
Pesky sheep and their wool repairing the Black Mountains while creating unique art….
Huh, now I know why that's there.
I mean, I knew it was some kind of environmental remedy, but I didn't know it was art.
Loads of people frothing on Facebook about them collapsing on people, from the photos I found with people for scale, they seem much smaller than they first appear.
from the photos I found with people for scale, they seem much smaller than they first appear.
They can't be that big - arches put quite a lot of pressure on their buttress points so if they were big enough to walk under (for example) then they'd need some big lumps of stone to stop them collapsing. The photos I've seen on the BBC show them just sat on the ground held there by friction.
Actually friction is probably illusionary, at least one is made from slate which is one of the slippiest rocks going, especially when wet.
They are clever and aesthetically pleasing but I go up mountains to be in a wild place and escape obvious human interference (yes, yes, sheep and denuded landscapes aside).
You might want to stay around Sutherland, there are, as pointed out, hardly any areas of Britain that haven’t been interfered with by humans since the last ice age. I really don’t have an issue with this, providing the materials are taken from fallen walls or random flat stones lying around.
Even stacked stones on beaches don’t bother me, concrete sea defences are more obtrusive, and the next high tide will likely knock them over or a high wind.
My issue here is I have had to clean up after some artists / Buddhists / hippies who think their art, messages hung from trees in plastic laminated tags (yes really), flags, wool wrapped trees etc should be left for us all to ‘enjoy’.
Now this, on the other hand, has me seething! You find this sort of nasty, plastic tat plastered all over various trees around Avebury, and people also leave lit tea-lights inside West Kennet Longbarrow, and they leave horrid greasy black soot stains on the stones above. Just a ghastly, tacky mess. 😡
Fake District
Best not look up Andy Goldsworthy then …
Was beginning to think that I was the only one old enough to remember!
Obviously Goldsworthy not as on-trend/alliterative as ‘Banksy’ for the purpose of social media/news (what’s the difference these days) but I’ve long loved his ephemeral, sympathetic art.
The small arches in the OP? Much ado about not a lot, IMO. Pleasant, raised a smile. Wind will take them.
Even stacked stones on beaches don’t bother me
We have a local woodland where a nice old lady walked her dog every day. When she died her husband put a wee tribute to her near her favourite tree, he has now also died. Went passed a few day ago. There's a little fence white chippings plastic tat "mum and dad" tributes. But the two things that really annoyed me were. 1. Dumping the dead plants, plastic pots and all, down the banking onto another path and 2 drilling the "headstone" into the tree. As in lots of overlapping circles from the bit spelling out the engraving.
Looks very Andy Goldsworthy.
The very essence of his work is that it's temporal and those stacks will be gone very soon indeed, through natural or human effects.
Leave.
No.
Trace
Yeah. But. This is the Lake District. Borrowdale. You can probably see the road or a pub from there. Also a hundred tourists. A dozen MTB riders. And this art will be gone by next month.
There’s a long tradition of art created as part of our landscapes. Stone circles, chalk figures and latterly artists such as Goldsworthy. The ethos of leave no trace is very important in my opinion. But I’m also encouraged to see people interacting with the land. For me the issues lie in permanence, relevance and motivation. If what you do requires the addition of plastics for example, does not add to the landscape or is motivated by a desire for that Instagram moment then it has no place and is not art.
As far as I can tell from the BBC article, the original artist just did them and left them for others to discover so doesn't appear to be "a desire for that instagram moment".
The "eye" looks to be on Thornythwaite Fell, part of Glaramara but don't know exactly where. The arch is on Castle Crag - you can see the track that the Borrowdale Bash descends at the right of the shot. The latter is a popular walk so unless it's off the path and you need to search it out it was always going to be found.