‘If these Gardens could speak, what stories they would tell’ - Kiran Chahal
When Kiran first visited the Gardens, she was drawn to the fact that they did not hold any visual references to WWII. The grounds are beautifully calm and it was only through the hidden archive that she could imagine the history it held. So the installation plays with the idea of ‘the hidden’.
Placed in a far corner, against a crumbling, long-forgotten wall, stands her piece, waiting to be found. Spray-painted and life size, using stencils on aluminium, is an RAF figure, his body created (and covered) with ivy.
It was created as part of the “Invitation to Draw – Drawing on Memories” project with funding from the Homefront Recall Big Lottery Fund.
Sacred Grove – Tom Deakins
Tom Deakins was moved to make a piece about the trees of Easton Lodge as they stand oasis-like and in great variety among the windswept open fields. So many surrounding trees were cut down during the Second World War and he wanted to remember their loss in contrast to the extraordinary richness of those that survived.
The starting point for this work was the cedar tree, planted at Easton Lodge in 1886 by Edward Prince of Wales (Edward VII). The artist was struck by the heart shape that appears within the upper branches and this was emphasised by creating the heart at the centre of the tree’s cross section. The tree is less defined, almost ghostly and diagrammatic to link it with the stuff of the background, and so it does not dominate the smaller individual “portraits” surrounding it.
The spiral of trees around the periphery is also rooted in the bark, the present moment and growing inwards, against the grain of time towards the literal heart of the tree. The piece is about the persistence of love, throughout life, growth and time.
It was created as part of the “Invitation to Draw – Drawing on Memories” project with funding from the Homefront Recall Big Lottery.
Yankee Doodle Dunmow – Jacqueline Davies
This piece was created by Jacqueline Davies for the “Invitation to Draw - Drawing on Memories” project in 2005. Painted in acrylics, it has a retro appeal recalling the time when the USA Air Force was in residence in Dunmow. The runway is the dominant image in the painting although, with further investigation, troop entertainer Bob Hope can be found along with references to visiting dignitary ‘Ike’ Eisenhower, the Crusader Fighter planes, Easton Lodge and other local reference points. The artwork is on show in the Dovecot alongside displays of archive photographs and other memorabilia of the RAF’s and USAAF’s time at Easton Lodge. It was created as part of the “Invitation to Draw – Drawing on Memories” project with funding from the Homefront Recall Big Lottery.
In memory – Antonia Hockton
This stone sculpture was created by artist Antonia Hockton in memory of all who were based at Easton Lodge during World War II. It was paid for from donations by members of the public and from donations from Great Easton Primary, Great Dunmow Primary and Dunmow St. Mary’s Primary Schools, following the schools’ involvement in the 2005 “Invitation to Draw - Drawing on Memories” Project. The sculpture is in the form of a wartime machine part, to symbolise the period.
‘Lost Labour; Community Service 1902′ - Liz Ellis
This artwork was made in response to the photograph in the Dovecot museum showing ‘men and mud’, taken on a cold Essex day in 1902. These were the men employed to build the Countess’s gardens. The language used at the time to describe the men from the Salvation Army (’inebriates, broken professional men, others of the submerged tenth’) has changed, but the results of their work remains and surrounds us. ‘Lost Labour; Community Service 1902’was created for the 2004 Invitation to Create Sculpture Trail and was purchased by an anonymous donor for the Gardens. It is located in the Shelley Pavilion.
Organic Classic – Alistair Smith
This sculpture represents Aphrodite (the goddess of the Act of Love) reclining on top of a Greek Corinthian column. It is carved from one piece of wood (a prematurely deceased beech tree), and using only a mallet and chisels.
The carving on the capital represents: two peacocks – found in the Gardens; a goose representing the ‘Patte d’Oie (goosefoot) design of the deer park; a crow – they roost and nest in the Bosquet; an apple (temptation), two pears, a rose and Aphrodite is shown with a dove resting on a scallop shell with a dolphin representing the sea. At eye level on the flutings is a carved heart showing the Prince of Wales’s feathers and a daisy.
At the time of the warm liaison between the Countess of Warwick and the Prince of Wales, the beech (fagus sylvatica) would have been only about 35 years old. When, in 2003, the tree died at the young age of approximately 150 years, Brian & Diana Creasey commissioned Alistair Smith to create this piece. Other works by the artist, notably a number of carved benches, are on display and in use at the Gardens.
Daisy Stones – Elaine Tribley
“Daisy Stones” is a body of work that touches on the memories of The Countess of Warwick and her involvement in the Gardens of Easton Lodge. Using suggestions from English folklore of the stone growing from the soil and rising to the surface, the artist has combined the surface of the stone with images of the Countess using a combination of hand painting and technological processes. The stones have been carefully repositioned within the landscape, creating a tension but also reminding us of the history of the gardens and their most renowned owner.
Created for the 2004 “Invitation to Create” Sculpture Trail.
Darling Daisy – Anne Schwegmann-Fielding
Inspired by the way The Countess of Warwick abandoned her luxurious lifestyle to embrace socialism and the support of good causes, this radical transformation was the starting point for the creation of Darling Daisy.
The artist strove to create an essence of Daisy, recreating her using objects previously buried within the gardens she loved so dearly.
Broken, rusting and worn bits of history have been polished, shaped and gilded to create a jewelled bodice. From a distance, a Gaultier model, yet on closer inspection, a museum of bullet cases, crockery, coins, shells and other oddments from the Gardens’ past.
Symbols of her life cover her frame, and carefully concealed within the flower at the centre of her chest is the profile of Edward VII, her “secret” love.
Her transparent skin, made from fragments of old greenhouse glass, reveals decaying daisies picked from fresh from the gardens. She is dead but not forgotten.
Anne Schwegmann-Fielding created the work during the Gardens first Artist in Residence project in 2004. Anne is well-known for her work within public settings. She specialises in using recycled materials to create sculptures and panels.
Commissioned by the Gardens of Easton Lodge Preservation Trust.
Funded by Essex County Council, Arts Council England, Friends of the Gardens of Easton Lodge.