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WATCHSPACE - Something Beautiful - Little Moreton Hall

Little Moreton Hall
Four works for the orchard, Justine Cook

As part of Cheshire's Year of the Gardens 2008 Justine Cook has worked at Little Moreton Hall to create four works in the orchard. She has used only materials found on site and created four pieces, three using stone and one using beech leaves.

The 'moat seat'
It is believed that these large rectangular pieces of stone were part of a former culvert or drainage system at the Hall. They have been precision cut with a narrow groove and the grooves whitened. The moat seat echoes the moat surrounding the Hall and the white line draws attention to the beauty of the stone itself.

The 'cobble skirt'
The stones beneath the pear tree are spare cobbles from the courtyard. The concentric rings suggest the skirt of leaves that fall each autumn and form a circle of leaf shadow around the tree before the wind blows them away. The cobbles have been painted white to echo the lime render of the Hall, and will fade over the forthcoming year.

The 'PYRUS' stones
PYRUS is Latin for pear tree. The pear tree they surround is dead and scheduled for removal. The wreath of redundant Tudor roof tiles mark this passing, and resemble small gravestones or even luggage labels. The work reminds us of the evolving nature of the old orchard, especially as the white painted letters on the tiles will dissolve over time.

The 'beech balls'
These are the most delicate and fragile sculptures in the orchard and are made of layered beech leaves collected in the autumn of 2007. The seven balls commemorate the seven decades that the National Trust have managed Little Moreton Hall and are arranged to reflect the moat around the Hall reflecting the Trust's ongoing preservation and protection work here. The shape also remembers the Tudor universe, a time when it was believed that the solar system contained only seven planets.

Justine keeps a blog recording her work, which includes her commission for Little Moreton Hall, to read more click here