Help Create a Hazel Cloud at Cockington

Children and adults are being invited to help create a public piece of land art at Cockington later this month. One thousand hazel sticks will be used to create the Hazel Cloud at Cockington Court Craft Centre from Friday 22 July to Wednesday 27 July, as part of Art on the English Riviera 2011.

The sticks range in height from four to 24 feet, and children and adults will be invited to cover them with the rich red soil found at Cockington and then plant them in the ground. The sticks will create a 24-metre diameter circular field, or cloud, of sticks around and through which people and their dogs will be able to walk. Hazel Cloud will vary with light conditions.

Morning and evening sunlight will enhance the shape and beauty of the earth and sticks, bringing out the red tones against the backdrop of lime trees, and casting a network of long shadows. Creator of the Hazel Cloud, Mike Fletcher, said: “This landscape installation is inspired by the region’s traditional building and craft materials, of earth and hazel, connecting visitors to the ‘bones’ of the Devon landscape. “This public piece of art is designed to be fully experienced by walking around and through the impressive hazel sticks.

“The installation will draw attention to the beautiful landscape at Cockington.” The piece will change from silver hazel to earth red during the public week, and then over the following six weeks of the exhibition the weather will change the sticks back to hazel.

Hazel Cloud is part of Art on the English Riviera 2011, an exhibition at Cockington celebrating West Country artists.

Art on the English Riviera runs from 22 July until 29 August and features four strands:

Mike Fletcher’s Hazel Cloud

West Country ceramic greats in the Court’s new Kitchen Gallery - ceramics loaned from The Dartington Hall Trust Collection and a private collector featuring the work of Bernard Leach will be showcased

World premiere Henry Bruce’s Horizon Cube. Horizon Cube is Henry Bruce’s first piece of outdoor sculpture since his Dartmoor Chair. It has links to the landscape, both in the literal sense and through imagination.

The 20 demonstration craft studios and the Bovey Guild of Craftsmen’s new retail unit showcasing the very best of the West Country’s craft makers.

For more information visit http://creativetorbay.com/creative-torbay/art---english-riviera/