Lucy + Jorge Orta: Gazing Ball 2018
Art Outdoors /Lucy + Jorge Orta: Gazing Ball 2018
Gazing Ball was originally commissioned for The National Trust’s Folly! programme, in which artists create responses to re-imagine lost follies at Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden, North Yorkshire.
Particularly fashionable in eighteenth-century estates, follies were decorative talking points along walks, acting as a place for people to pause, take in views or to sit and converse. Gazing Ball now sits within the Bretton Estate, another landscape designed in the eighteenth century and which has a number of existing follies, and also some that have been lost over time.
Framing the views beyond, Gazing Ball has differently shaped geometric windows within its open structure that offer varied outlooks onto the landscape, observed from a central seat, and relates to the historic trend for emphasising special or far-reaching vistas. Cradled at the top, and providing another way of seeing, is a large mirrored sphere that reflects and distorts the lake and surroundings.
You might also like
- Art Outdoors
David Nash: Black Mound
Black Mound was made for the YSP landscape by David Nash in 2013. Once in place, he charred the oak forms through a carefully controlled burning process that relates to his interest in the four elements. - Art Outdoors
David Nash: 49 Square
49 Square was created by Nash in 2013 as a permanent work in the YSP landscape. It comprises 49 Himalayan birch trees, which, planted in seven rows of seven, will grow to form a white cube on the lake’s embankment. - Art Outdoors
JocJonJosch: Eddy
Eddy continues JocJonJosch’s investigations into collaboration. The round boat with three oars is symbolic of the collective’s dynamic, in which Joc, Jonathan and Joschi wrestle towards a destination. There is a sense that each time one would attempt to move forward, his movement would be countered by the action of the other two, leaving them literally turning in circles. - News
Artist Editons available from YSP Shop
13 December 2023