A beautiful glass installation at Minsmere’s ancient ruined chapel has inspired an exciting new collaboration that fuses art and nature
It's two and a half years since glass artist Arabella Marshall saw her vision for the ancient, ruined chapel at Minsmere become reality, when her wonderful stained glass 'window' was installed in the shattered wall of the monument. With A Wing and a Prayer, Arabella created a colourful beacon among the reeds, joyous and celebratory amid the dark days of the Covid pandemic.
The installation has remained in place, a statement in the landscape, reflecting the fragile, natural beauty of Suffolk’s heritage coast, a paradox amid the remnants of World War II coastal defences and Sizewell power station. It's created quite a stir - Clare Balding of Radio 4's Ramblings recorded a walk with Arabella around the site, and it has inspired a short film by Woodbridge based film maker Tim Curtis. It has also been the catalyst for people to explore their own relationship to nature and the environment, through drawing and photography, and simply experiencing it for themselves.
Now phase two of the ambitious project is taking flight - an innovative collaboration between Suffolk Craft Society and the RSPB, in which eight SCS artists and makers are making their own contribution with what they have named Spreading Our Wings. 'It was always my intention that A Wing and a Prayer should be an invitation for other creatives to respond,' says Arabella, 'that it should be an opportunity for them to go beyond their normal parameters in terms of scale and the materials they work with.'
The eight artists are printmakers Helen Maxfield and Terry Bryan, textile artists Jenny Nutbeem and Ruth Holt, woodworker Jon Warnes, weaver Liz Chester, sculptor Nicola Coe and mosaics artist Joy Holden. Their work is being exhibited at the Dovecote gallery at Snape Maltings in May and at various locations around the Minsmere reserve for the rest of this year. It will also be on display at Craft Co in Southwold throughout the whole of June in an exhibition called Beyond the Reeds.
Arabella is delighted with Spreading Our Wings as a response to her original idea, although she is at pains to point out she merely 'seeded' the follow-on project and is simply a co-ordinator. 'It's very much led and determined by the eight participating artists. They came up with the name and it really is about them and their experiences of Minsmere,' she says.
Arabella creates pieces for specific outdoor and indoor locations. She hatched the original idea for A Wing and a Prayer quite by accident on her first visit to Minsmere, when she came across the disused chapel which was the original location for Leiston Abbey in the early Middle Ages. 'I just found myself fascinated with it and how it had become part of the environment,' she says. 'As I was heading home, I got an idea that wouldn’t it be marvellous to make a kind of window for this old ruin.
'It’s a beautiful, very peaceful place, but it’s also full of contradictions – you have got Sizewell which is visual from pretty much every spot, there are World War II remains scattered around and in the chapel itself there is even a Second World War pill box built into where the altar once was.' After five years of detailed planning, the project - the most ambitious installation Arabella has undertaken - was installed at the end of 2020.
Meet the artists
Liz Chester, tapestry weaver
The Willow Tunnel
Liz is a professional tapestry weaver based in Ipswich. Her work is largely pictorial and reflects her life and interests. Textiles provide the opportunity to work in both two and three dimensions with the added interest of texture, structure and of course, glorious colour.
Nicola Coe, sculptor
Between the lines of time
Repurposed fencing and electrical wire
Nicola is an artist who makes art with nature, for nature. The historical artefacts left behind by World War II, together with her fascination for birds nests, have culminated in her work at Minsmere.The architecture of these ‘bird made structures’ enthrals and astonishes her. She tries to emulate these structures, and aims to study closely the particular species of nest and where and how they are made. A passion for our native bird life and the protection needed of their nesting sites strongly influence her work.
Joy Holden, mosaicist
Cormorants
Unglazed ceramics, stained glass and glass tessera
Joy has been creating mosaics for over 20 years. Using the reverse method, which produces uncharacteristically flat mosaics, Joy translates patterns and moments from the natural environment,using unglazed ceramics, glass tesserae, stained glass and gold tiles. ‘Cutting each piece to fit perfectly within the whole is truly satisfying.'
Helen Maxfield, printmaker
A murmuration of starlings
Linocut printing on calico and silk fabrics, blending in harmony
Helen makes linocut prints that explore mark making, experimental techniques and how multiple layers interact. Minsmere’s diverse habitats, the birds and how they change through the seasons inspire her work, in which she strives to investigate how the medium of linocut can conjure the spirit of a landscape.
Ruth Holt, woven textiles
Ruth is a designer-maker of woven textiles. She came to weaving as a second career after years of city life. After training in London, she is now based not too far from Minsmere. Her designs are developed with a strong awareness of her surroundings, their history and culture as well as the present landscape.
Terry Bryan, printmaker
A time of inspiration
Canvass prints from original monotype and drypoint artworks
Terry produces both monotypes and monoprints, which offers him freedom to experiment and to develop the ever changing moods of nature. Using either a combination of aluminium or perspex plates, together with carborundum applied mount board, he works to achieve an artwork that will encompass the very essence of nature itself. The final result being a print that is unique.
Jon Warnes, woodworker
Jon makes a range of benches for indoor and outdoor seating using local hardwoods. They are usually site specific and made to commission. They have included memorial seating for the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales, seating for the Felixstowe Flood Memorial garden and oak benches with carved inscriptions for the Quaker Labyrinth at St. Andrews Museum in Fife. Most recently, he has have made benches for the Red House garden in Aldeburgh. At Minsmere he is planning a two- or three-seater bench with relief carving
Jenny Nutbeem, textile artist
Jenny is a textile artist specialising in dyed and painted textiles. Her designs and working methods have evolved from a concern with the environment and she enjoys experimenting creatively with reclaimed and recycled materials.Recently she has been exploring botanical contact printing, using plants and leaves to transfer images onto fabric and paper by a heat process. Using this technique, she has developed her practice to design and make site-specific outdoor work.
