15 May – 21 June 2001
Exploring the interface between basketry and sculpture

Crossover was an ambitious project comprising five large-scale sculptures and play areas in local parks, and a gallery based exhibition. All the artists involved use natural materials and draw on basketry techniques to make their work.

15 May - 21 June
'Crossover' Gallery Exhibition

The Crossover gallery exhibition provided a unique opportunity to see the work of six distinguished artists, three British: Dail Behennah, Valerie Pragnell, and Shuna Rendel and three American: Dorothy Gill Barnes, Christine Joy and Gyöngy Laky. Their work is rooted in the strong relationship that they have with the environment. The materials that they often 'respectfully scavenge', are the starting point for their richly inventive sculpture.

The exhibition toured nationally:
15 - 21 June 2001
Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery 01284 762081
6 July - 26 August 2001
Harley Gallery, Welbeck, Nottinghamshire 01909 501700
8 December - 19 January 2001
Middlesborough Art Gallery 01642 358139
1 June - 20 July 2002
Bilston Craft Gallery 01902 552507

Crossover outdoors

These outdoor artworks are made from planted and harvested materials, existing trees and the land itself. They are living out their natural lives in the landscape that has provided their initial inspiration, inviting physical engagement and provoking responses from playfulness to contemplation. They will change as they grow, or remain until the materials rot naturally.

Crossover Outdoors examines the work of artists who make links with basketry, textiles, fibre sculpture and land art. Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery selected the artists and developed the works in partnership with Ickworth House Park and Gardens and St Edmundsbury Borough Council.

The artists offer us an insight into their ideas and concerns for the environment, as well as provinding some understanding of the process involved in making these ambitious works of art.

Crossover Outdoors is an exciting extension of a national touring exhibition called Crossover: the interface between basketry and sculpture launched at Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery (May/June 2001).

A catalogue for Crossover and Maker Profile videos of the gallery artists are available from Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery.

Tim Johnson
The Abbey Gardens, Bury St Edmunds
Free Monday to Saturday, 7.30am to dusk
Sundays and Bank Holidays 9am to dusk
for information call 01284 757490
Through improvisation and experimentation Tim works with natural and man-made materials to explore the nature of the world around us. He has exhibited throughout Britain and Ireland, and has undertaken residencies in the USA, Australia, Uzbekistan and Newfoundland.

"I have combined traditional and contemporary weaving techniques and drawn inspiration from the scale, colour and texture of the Abbey's archaeological remains for this new work titled Catch my Breath. Through a variety of textures and densities, I have used white willow rods as the work's only building component to explore ideas of enclosure and capture, solidity and fragility, weight and transparency. Over the coming year the willow will respond to weather conditions which will change the colour and relax the shapes. By placing the sculptures in a variety of hidden or surprising positions around the Gardens they will alter with the season and the location."

Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva
Nowton Park, Bury St Edmunds
Free every day of the year, 8.30am to dusk
for information call 01284 763666
Since graduating from the sculpture department of the Royal College of Art, London, Elpida has pursued an increasingly ambitious series of personal projects which respond to the environment, challenge expectations and question notions of man's control and structuring of the world. For Sweet Red, the trunk of a Canadian Redwood - felled after being struck by lightening - was sawn into slices and suspended with steel wires within a copse of cedars. Weighing over 500kg each, the hanging slices evoke feelings of apprehension and awe, heightened by the dramatic light inside the space.

"The forest is a secret place, its floor is a membrane that separates the underground where the tree's root structure echoes the configuration of its brances - the tips of which brush that other membrane, the sky."

Sweet Red is found inside a copse between the car park and the astro-turf sports-field at Nowton Park.

Chris Drury
Ickworth Park, Horringer
7am to 7pm every day except 25 December
£2.50 adults, 80p children, National Trust Members free
entry to Ickworth House not included
for information call 01284 735270
Over the past twenty five years Chris Drury has developed an impressive body of work in response to the natural environment. For Ickworth Park he has made two sculptures for the Yew Avenue along the Albana Walk. They have been constructed using material from the park as natural scaffolding to create the forms.

"My work explores our relationship to inner and outer worlds. I have worked with mountain people in rural Japan and with technicians and pathologists using high tech machinery in a modern hospital. When I work on a site-specific project, as at Ickworkth, the work is driven by place and materials to hand as well as the history and culture of that place. Very often with these works it is possible to enter the sculpture or it might have an interior aspect which has to be experienced as well as seen."

Steve Pickup
Ickworth Park, Horringer
7am to 7pm every day except 25 December
£2.50 adults, 80p children, National Trust Members free
entry to Ickworth House not included
for information call 01284 735270
More than one hundred different varieties of willow grown at The Willow Bank in Wales, provide the source material for Steve's living willow structures. His projects with schools, community centres and nature reserves all around Britain encourage children and adults to acquire an undertanding of this versatile material, from its cultivation and harvest to its creative applications.

Steve's work for Ickworth Park can be found beside the children's play area, and consists of a series of tunnels, spirals and domes, loosely inspired by the architecture of the house itself. The design incorporates "shapes within shapes within shapes," a network of triangles, pentagons and five pointed stars. Its secret passages and hidden spaces encourage exploration. In summer it provides a leafy den for play and rest, and in Winter new growth is pruned back to reveal its colourful linear structure.

Jim Buchanan
East Town Park, Haverhill
Free 8.30am to dusk every day of the year
for information call 01440 710745
Jim Buchanan's willow maze is inspired by early burial mounds and labyrinths.Working with local volunteers and park rangers the project has developed over several years of planning, planting and weaving. Beginning with the land itelf, Jim worked with mechanical diggers to create a line of circular mounds and dips with a pathway weaving between them. Five varieties of coloured willow were planted which, once matured, were woven and lashed to create "living skins" over the ground. A spiralling pathway leads visitors to the centre of the largest circle surrounding them with lush green foliage in summer and a stockade of line and texture during winter. This open maze encourages a sense of journey and discovery, of movement and exploration.

"I am very pleased with the way the project has developed. It has been a joy to see how the whole installation has settled into the park - with numerous small birds and animals now using it as a cover, and other park visitors enjoying this route through the meadow."

14 May - 29 May 2001
Tim Johnson - Bury St Edmunds Festival Artist in Residence

Tim Johnson used all kinds of material collected in the Abbey Gardens and made them into sculptures. He worked from a marquee in the gardens, talking to visitors about work in progress.

Tim Johnson has five sculptures in the gardens as part of Crossover. He has recently returned from successful residencies in Denmark and Australia.

Crossover resources

Crossover Maker Profiles on video
Three American Makers: Dorothy Gill Barnes, Christine Joy and Gyöngy Laky 90 Minutes £20 plus £1.50 p+p

Three British Makers: Dail Behennah, Valerie Pragnell and Shuna Rendel 90 minutes £20 plus £1.50 p+p

Catalogue, 20pp full colour £2.50 plus £1 p+p