The first visual art fellow for English Heritage and 2022 Turner Prize nominee, Ingrid Pollard MBE, is unveiling a new exhibition of her works.
There is Light in the Fissures opens on February 10 at Belsay Hall and Quarry Gardens.
The exhibition forms part of the charity's creative programme, resulting from a partnership with Newcastle University and supported by Bartlett Endowment Funding.
Ms Pollard’s installations for the exhibition are a culmination of a year-long fellowship, creating impressive interventions and installations throughout the historic site.
Among these is a grand installation: a massive stone segment, discovered on site, suspended at half a metre and cradled by ropes attached to the towering pillars of Belsay’s Greek revival hall.
Other innovative pieces include intricately designed paper fragments adorning the torn wallpaper in Belsay Hall's bedrooms, as well as strategically-placed mirrors hiding in plain sight within the Quarry Gardens.
These artistic expressions delve into the history of the landscape, with particular emphasis on the sandstone the hall and quarry are crafted from.
Ms Pollard said: “The prospect of working at Belsay Hall was tantalising from the very beginning.
"It’s almost magical landscape led me down the pathways of sound, magic and performance and I found myself excited by the idea of bringing parts of this wonderland inside.
"The lines of enquiry that I have followed are many and, in some cases, surprising. I am looking forward to showing people what I have found.”
Belsay Hall, with its massive 14th century tower, a Jacobean mansion, an elegant Classical Greek Revival villa and 20 acres of unique gardens, presents a rich source of inspiration.
Penelope Sexton, English Heritage’s senior creative programme manager, said: “The castles, Abbeys and stately homes of England have a long history of inspiring great works of art, but English Heritage’s new creative programme wants artists to look at these wonderful old buildings in new ways.
"Ingrid Pollard has spent the past year doing just that, and it has been so interesting to watch her tease out the layers of history at Belsay, ones that don’t necessarily fit in with the obvious narratives.”
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