A new film by artist Simon Pope opens at Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) on Saturday 6 October and will be on show in the Park’s 18th-century Chapel every day until 4 November 2012.
Simon Pope What Cannot Be Turned Aside, 2012 © the artist Courtesy of YSP
What Cannot Be Turned Aside is an exploration of how we negotiate access to land and the strong impulses at play during this process. The work features a horse and rider from West Bretton walking together across an open field near the former gallops on Longside, which once staged an annual horse fair.
Visiting artist in 2010/11, Pope’s practice often involves walking, the act of being together, the spoken word, and the subjective notion of memory. During his time at YSP, Pope researched access in relation to the Bretton Estate.
Simon Pope says: “My work at YSP started in 2010 by walking and talking to staff and local residents. I was interested to find out about the personal meaning that people attach to their walks around the Park and in my role as artist bearing witness and following a route.
“I found that the estate was used in all sorts of ways, both official and unofficial with visitors using footpaths or in some cases trespassing. Initially I worked with the idea of how people negotiate roots across the Park and the conversations that take place to make this happen.
“In my latest film I’ve explored the constraints we experience within the landscape and used the metaphor of rider and horse to demonstrate freedom and constraint and the constant pull between these two tendencies.”
What Cannot Be Turned Aside is funded by Arts Council England and will also be screened at Danielle Arnaud gallery, London from 5-28 October 2012. – www.ysp.co.uk