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Settlement

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Heysham Barrows + Birkrigg Common

Rob Mullholland

September 2018

Over 25,000 people visited two rural / coastal locations to experience Settlement - a temporary installation by the sculptor and environmental artist, Rob Mullholland. Situated first on the coastline of Heysham Barrows in Lancashire and touring to Birkrigg Common near Ulverston in Cumbria, the dwellings, inspired by early Anglo Saxon designs, encouraged viewers to consider the influence of the historic communities on these lands.

Rob Mulholland’s work aims to explore and convey the intricate relationship we have with our natural environment. Themes of ancestry often permeate the work that has been exhibited and embraced by communities internationally. Settlement, three stainless steel dwellings and six mirrored figures, takes on dramatic shifts under the impact of the Bay’s light and weather conditions - the scorching heat of 2018, summer storms, bracken, grasses. Those who walk the spaces everyday see and feel it anew in the altered conditions while brand new visitors travelling to see the work experience an amplified expression of the natural beauty and drama of Morecambe Bay.

“Every angle offers a new perspective. It’s thrilling to see a sheer expanse of blue – a stolen gap in the clouds – reflected onto the structure; it hits you like a slightly off-colour Yves Klein canvas punctuating the landscape.

The interplay between the work, landscape and viewer was crucial. 

My experiences of ‘Settlement’ demonstrated a voracious appetite for art. Looking at Mulholland’s installation, one dog-walker on Birkrigg summarised, “more of this, please.”

Corridor 8”

Heysham Barrows in particular is a hot spot for dog walkers who make daily trips past the Church to see the sea, through all weather in all seasons. The walkers & residents became advocates and impromptu lookouts for Settlement, so touched were they by the arrival of the work to their space. Many felt moved, many had personal experiences and many felt that they, and their treasured land, had become seen and valued beyond their expectation.

The structures evoked an abstract ethereal sense of these places as ‘settlements’. They acted as a reminder of the generations of people who have shaped and worked these lands and as places of spiritual expression. In Heysham, the structures were in sight of the 9th century scheduled monument of St Patrick’s Chapel and the iconic rock hewn graves on the headlands. At Birkrigg Common, the structures were closeby to the Druids Circle, a concentric stone circle that suggests this is a space of spiritual practice and early settlement of the Bronze Age.

Settlement Gallery

Photography - Robin Zahler

CLICK TO VIEW PROGRAMME COMMISSIONS

Emily Hennessey, Made by the Moon

Jenny Reeves and Ellen Jeffrey, Longways / Crosswise

Chris Drury, Horizon Line Chamber

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.