fleur de sel...
Inspired by a very English landscape, Fleur de Sel was sited on Ullswater, near Glenridding, during September 2009.
Fleur de Sel reflected the delicate light salt crystals which can be skimmed off the surface of seawater and references Venice's earliest industry. Each form was made from silk and lace parasols and were shown in various stages of apparent decay.
The line of forms created a visual and theoretical line through the heart of Venice to Brantwood on the shore of Coniston Water. The forms were inspired by a very English view of Venice - that of the Grand Tour where the parasol becomes an icon of the need to protect the delicate English from the sun, and an important marker of cultural identity. Venice and Cumbria share a number of points of community - their role in the birth of ‘tourism' and their association with water and its industries.
Victorian art and architecture critic John Ruskin lived at Brantwood on the shores of Coniston for many years. During that time he made numerous trips to Venice - the subject of his seminal work ‘The Stones of Venice'. In it, Ruskin is inspired not only by the architecture of Venice, but also in the way that it decays. It is this beauty in decay which Fleur de Sel celebrates.
Fleur de Sel 11th - 13th September 2009
Exhibition at Brantwood, Coniston, the Lake District - 11th September - 11th October 2009
