Crop Marks

background the artists process pics twitter trail map

Seven contemporary artists were commissioned by Park Arts Group to create an art trail ‘Crop Marks’ especially for Orchard Park, Cambridge.

The artists worked on site with residents Aug 21 - 27 and their final exhibition was open to the public over the August Bank Holiday Weekend 28 - 31st August 2009.

preview and purchase Crop Marks book online

And so the night became

Elspeth Brooke

An original sound piece composed using field recordings and workshops with residents, inspired by the Emily Dickinson poem ‘The Cricket Sang’.

The cricket sang,

And set the sun,

And workmen finished, one by one,

Their seam the day upon.

The low grass loaded with the dew,

The twilight stood as strangers do

With hat in hand, polite and new,

To stay as if, or go.

A vastness, as a neighbor, came, --

A wisdom without face or name,

A peace, as hemispheres at home, --

And so the night became.

‘And so the night became’ was broadcast on 209radio 105Fm everyday over the Crop Marks weekend.

available online : 209radio

How can you feel ‘at home’ in Orchard Park?

Urban (Col)laboratory

It's not a particular place that gives you the feeling of belonging

It's what you bring to a place that makes it home

the emotions that connect you with a place,

the relationships you have to people living there

and the functions that you assign it...

All week Urban (Col)laboratory, Helen Stratford and Diana Wesser, explored ‘at homeness’ by asking people who live and work in Orchard Park how to feel at home; putting this advice into practice in different locations across the development.

Every day during the Crop Marks Art Trail Helen and Diana invited visitors to explore how to feel at home in Orchard Park through joining them in a selection of interventions.

Pay someone else to make you feel at home

Hang out your washing

Invite people round

Have a picnic

A short documentary film of Urban (Col)laboratory’s interventions was screened in the Premier Inn Hotel bar and at the BPHA show home.

Limited Addition

CJ Mahony

This work responded directly to the processes and buildings of the Orchard Park site, in their various “states” of completion. The ‘towers’ created with residents take up ‘a’ position in the landscape echoing the forms of the buildings around them.

With thanks to Martin Davies

of Martin Grant Homes

Significant Others

Emma Fenelon

Orchard Park clay ... meadow cuttings ... sand ... with bowls, cups and other work made by Orchard Park residents using clay found and prepared on site with the help of local children.

Twinning Households (map)

Caroline Wright

Over the period 21st to 31st August, Caroline Wright operated a special postal service for Orchard Park. Postcards were delivered to every household and recipients were invited to write to a randomly chosen address, offering a neighbourly message to another Orchard Park household. In turn this household could respond and so on ... creating numerous reciprocal exchanges across the Park. 11% of households took part initially with 5.5 % sending several messages to each other over the week. Caroline recorded each exchange and these are represented on the work Twinning Households (map).

Assemblages for Orchard Park

David Kefford

A series of temporary sculptural assemblages created for the scrubland spaces of Orchard Park. Each assemblage was created ‘on the spot’ where David found a gathering of dumped trash which he then combined with junk and materials donated by residents.

Their Seam

Karen Rann

100 Square polypropylene cushions filled with ‘out of date’ builder’s crash mat polystyrene. Created on site, their seams sewn on 3 ancient hand-crank Singers.

‘Their Seam’ visited three locations across Orchard Park over the exhibition weekend and played host to Elspeth Brooke’s sound piece ‘And so the night became’.

The cushions were given away to residents on the final day.