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Horizon Line Chamber

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Sunderland Point

Chris Drury

March 2019

Horizon Line Chamber is the 15th Chamber in the series of still, silent, meditative Chamber works by environmental artist, Chris Drury. For 15 years or more, the artist looked for a meaningful site for this very particular work and through the Headlands to Headspace Landscape Commissions he found the site at Sunderland Point to be ‘almost perfect, due to the changing nature of Morecambe Bay.’ The artist’s previous 14 Chambers are found all over the world including Sky Mountain Chamber in The Dolomites, Star Chamber in Nashville, and Wave Chamber at Kielder Water. 

Each chamber responds to place, using naturally occurring materials and skills from each location. At Sunderland Point, the Horizon Line Chamber reflects the sea being shaped like an upturned boat and an early Christian Oratory. Here, Master craftsman & dry stone waller Andrew Mason turned locally reclaimed stone into a beautiful handcrafted chamber, inside which a lens in the sea-facing wall turns this small oratory into a camera obscura - as visitors take a seat inside, the lens projects an inverted image of the coastal scene outside and offers a peaceful shelter amidst Sunderland Point’s dramatic, ever-changing landscape. 

“Internationally-acclaimed land artist Chris Drury's latest project is a dry stone chamber at the end of a remote peninsular overlooking Morecambe Bay in Lancashire. 

When it is finished, visitors will be able to go inside the building which will feature a camera obscura projection of the vast open landscape and big sky of Morecambe Bay”

BBC 4 Front Row, December 2018

Working intensely with the small community at Sunderland Point, a historic fishing village that becomes ‘sundered from the land’ at high tide twice daily,  the site and planning permissions were secured to create the work over a two year period. Built by hand throughout the autumn and winter of 2018/19, the Chamber is a meditative, reflective space for the community and visitors to the Bay.

The commissioned artwork was realised through a collaborative process between artist, community, commissioners, producers, landowners and highly skilled craftspeople. An engagement programme included writing and walking workshops and talks at Lancaster University and within the community. Horizon Line Chamber is featured in the Aesthetica Art Prize Anthology: Future Now. 

Horizon Line Chamber Gallery

Photography - Robin Zahler

CLICK TO VIEW PROGRAMME COMMISSIONS

Emily Hennessey, Made by the Moon

Jenny Reeves and Ellen Jeffrey, Longways / Crosswise

Rob Mullholland, Settlement

Anna Gillespie, SHIP

The Headlands to Headspace Landscape Art Commissioning Programme was a series of five artworks commissioned by Morecambe Bay Partnership, co-produced and co-curated by Deco Publique and funded by the Heritage Fund. The temporary and permanent artworks were located around Morecambe Bay’s stunning 90 mile coastline to engage residents and visitors with the natural and cultural heritage of the Bay and the spectacular landscape, coast and wildlife. 

Morecambe Bay Partnership is a charity that celebrates and conserves; connects and collaborates. From birds to beach cleans, from cycle ways to the history that shaped the Bay, they work in collaboration with the community and other partners to deliver projects with real impact.

Deco Publique has collaborated with Morecambe Bay Partnership for a number of years with a shared vision of expanding the profile and legacy of the Bay’s heritage, landscape and culture. During the Headlands to Headspace programme, we worked together closely to navigate the complex challenges of citing artistic work in the land. Our particular thanks to Susannah Bleakley and Jan Shorrock for the collaborative and positive approach to working together to realise such ambitious, dynamic outcomes.

Our two organisations are now collaborating on a new piece of research made possible with Arts Council funding secured by Deco Publique to look at future arts and landscape commissioning around Morecambe Bay.