GATHERED - 2000
The culmination of a project with Grizedale Arts, the banquet took place at Lawson Park, close to Brantwood the former home of John Ruskin and the title of the work "gathered" is taken from one of Ruskin's manuscripts for Proserpina in which he describes the forms and habitats of local flowers. Words and fragments of texts from the manuscript appear with the pollen images on the dinner service. As flowers pressed in a book leave a faded stain, Ruskin's words sink into the surface of glaze like inky ghosts. The banquet became a metaphor for cross-pollination, a fertile exchange between a group of people drawn together for one brief moment in time. A botanist, a poet, a herbalist, a bee keeper, a writer, in all, twelve individuals each with their own special connection with the work each with their own contribution to make. They were treated to a menu devised by the food writer Nichola Fletcher that drew upon local produce. Arctic Char from Lake Conniston, venison from Grizedale, wild mushrooms and forest fruits.