Music & Arts in West Dorset, UK

Here's an opportiunity to get a first hand glimpse of the model of the new Weymouth Relief Road sculpture.

While Sherborne House is still unavailable as an exhibition venue, Sherborne House Arts is continuing to stage exhibitions in Galleries and Arts Spaces across the region.  Its most recent collaboration is with Bridport Arts Centre which is hosting Earthscapes: Geology and Geography. This show capitalizes on the resurgence of interest in landscape-based work rising out of current concerns for the environment, global warming and the erosion of the coastline around the UK.  In work ranging from painting and photography through to land art and environmental projects, six artists explore their relationship with the land.   Some big names in the contemporary art world are showing alongside work of considerable local interest. Richard Harris, who makes large-scale environmental sculpture will provide visitors with their first opportunity to view his models for the Weymouth Relief Road commission. Harris has been working closely with Skanska who are developing the road and has proposed a sculpture which will create a dramatic sense of arrival into Weymouth. He plans to use the excavated stone from the deep cutting which has been carved into Southdown Ridge, re-positioning a number of the larger stones. The stones will rise above the ground on both sides of the road along curved lines which follow the geological strata.

Devon based artist Tania Kovats will be showing a sculpture which relates to Tree which was part of her winning commission for the Natural History Museum, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin.  Mariele Neudecker is probably best known in the UK for her striking condensed mountain, lake and forest landscapes in glass display cases, which were exhibited at Tate St Ives.  These will be seen at Bridport in photographic form.  Large format landscape photography by Stephen Vaughan and photographs of Kate Raggetts drawings on landscape using stones and fallen apples will be complemented by Bath-based Jeremy Gardiner’s multi layered paintings which explore the geology of the Jurassic coast.