"I am an artist living and working in the Derbyshire Peak District. While previously producing gallery based sculpture, over the last few years I have returned to land based preoccupations which now dominate my practice.
The transition was at first partial, starting with a sculpture residency in Parsley Hay railway cutting in Derbyshire, for Year of the Artist. But after the success of Sites of Meaning, working with the community of Middleton and Smerrill, and a light work on the Old Man of Coniston, Cumbria for FRED 2005, the transition is complete. I am now developing two major projects.
Companion Stones works with poets and artists exploring the legacy of the Derbyshire Guide Stoops, stones erected in the eighteenth century to guide hapless travellers across treacherous moors. At a time when the future role of peat moors, not least in trapping carbon dioxide, is increasingly vital, Companion Stones aims to produce other directions to the future.
Night Stations is a programme of residencies, workshops and installations exploring the nocturnal landscape. Informed by local stakeholders and communities, Night Stations works under the cover of dark to reveal what is hidden by the light of day: presenting a series of visual koans to challenge the picturesque gaze.
The challenges of working on the land are quite different to those of the gallery. Even small tracks of land can have many stakeholders, each with a different point of view. While these interests initially appear to be obstacles, with a change of attitude and approach they can become opportunities: where local knowledge and values can enrich rather than frustrate the artistic cause. "
The transition was at first partial, starting with a sculpture residency in Parsley Hay railway cutting in Derbyshire, for Year of the Artist. But after the success of Sites of Meaning, working with the community of Middleton and Smerrill, and a light work on the Old Man of Coniston, Cumbria for FRED 2005, the transition is complete. I am now developing two major projects.
Companion Stones works with poets and artists exploring the legacy of the Derbyshire Guide Stoops, stones erected in the eighteenth century to guide hapless travellers across treacherous moors. At a time when the future role of peat moors, not least in trapping carbon dioxide, is increasingly vital, Companion Stones aims to produce other directions to the future.
Night Stations is a programme of residencies, workshops and installations exploring the nocturnal landscape. Informed by local stakeholders and communities, Night Stations works under the cover of dark to reveal what is hidden by the light of day: presenting a series of visual koans to challenge the picturesque gaze.
The challenges of working on the land are quite different to those of the gallery. Even small tracks of land can have many stakeholders, each with a different point of view. While these interests initially appear to be obstacles, with a change of attitude and approach they can become opportunities: where local knowledge and values can enrich rather than frustrate the artistic cause. "
Charles Monkhouse
Charles Monkhouse, Evening Glory, Coniston
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