Green plant - yellow flower - blue dye
The process of making woad from a living plant into a dye colour is a journey; the plant has to go through many stages to achieve the final blue powder which is the dye. Our project aims reflect this layered process by exploring the different stages of experience when journeying through a landscape: 1. Approach - viewing the landscape from a distance; long vistas, bold colour, created enclosures and a large structure draw you in further; 2. Acquaintance - moving through the project, discovering planting forms, exploring structure, following paths, reclaiming the landscape; 3. Intimacy - sitting in, stopping and noticing details, discovering objects and spaces, a moment of reflection.
The visitor will be guided by paths through the landscape into areas of planting and enclosures before reaching the final destination marked by a sculpture. Woad was of great economic importance in the middle ages and this heritage combined with the market gardening life of Amiens and the Hortillonnages is the inspiration for the painted, metal sculpture; a ‘cathedral’ of stacked crates used for storing of crops in this case the cut woad flowers. Along the paths there will also be scattered metal, woad flowers as waymarkers.
Biographies
Steve Papps - BA Design, Diploma Art & Design, RHS Certificate in Horticulture.
Steve trained as an Interior Architect and practiced in London, Europe and Hong Kong designing commercial spaces, shops and salons. In 2000 he moved to East Anglia and began teaching creative drawing and design to students in Cambridge and Cardiff. Steve set up his landscape and garden design practice, Onebeech garden design in 2005. Onebeech designs and builds both public and private garden spaces for clients in throughout the U.K. and Europe. Steve combines landscaping, horticultural and design skills and has collaborated with artist Jo Chapman on a number of art and garden projects; including Chaumont International Festival des Jardins in 2011 and the R.H.S. Chelsea Flower Show in 2012.
Jo Chapman - MA Fine Art, BA Embroidery, Diploma Art & Design, PGCE in Education.
Jo was born in London and studied for her undergraduate degree at Birmingham University, U.K. and for her master’s degree at Norwich University School of Art and Design. In 2000 she moved to East Anglia with her husband Steve Papps. She has exhibited widely in the U.K and was represented by England & Co Gallery, London. Since 2004 her practise has moved away from gallery-based work to working within the public domain, encompassing commissions, installations and collaborative projects which are inspired by our complex relationship with nature and the discovery of beauty in the ordinary.
Jo’s public projects and commissions include : a new artwork for Wisbech Library; Unpicked Meadow, a public art project in a fenland nature reserve; a steel wall drawing and garden areas for Anglia Ruskin University halls of residence; commissions for Dementia Care Wards at Coventry and Norwich hospital and recently three sculptures for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. She is currently working on a new steel work for the entrance to Banham Zoo in Suffolk. Jo has also taught on various further education courses as well as facilitating workshops throughout the U.K.
