Walk in the Footsteps - Forest Exhibition
Set within the forest near Sutton, Woodbridge, an immersive exhibition inviting the viewer to open their senses and become lost within nature.
The path leads to an ethereal section of the forest, filled with silver birches and moss covered mounds. As you cross the threshold of the space, the energy shifts and the exhibition begins.
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Viewers Experience:
I’ve been to a few exhibitions in my time but it’s not very often one is invited to view within the depths of ancient woodland. I was certainly curious. On arrival, clues direct the viewer on a fairy-tale journey, a remote path that’s been travelled by only a privileged few. On more than one occasion, you feel lost and then suddenly find yourself back on the less trodden path. But this is all essential to the experience. Taking the time to lose yourself within nature, to develop a child-like curiosity as you’re led into the green abyss. Finally, I arrive.
"The work is subtle, soft, working closely with nature. Appropriately spaced as an installation, it is suspended, mounted within the elements quietly reminding the viewer to look up, look down and all around. You search for intermittent works sympathetically displayed within the woodland floor, the barks of trees, the soft spring moss, the canopy of branches. Like softly-spoken secrets, spiritual morsels, the work whispers and breathes amongst and within its natural surroundings. The treasure trail begins.
Mikaela’s Rackham’s photography is not conventional. Inspired by nature, it records the subtle elements that one often takes for granted such as traces, textures, shapes and sounds. Using a variety of processes and media, the work sits so comfortably within its natural habitat and has a sense of belonging, as if it has always been there. But of course it always has and the artist gently highlights this with an ethereal collection of personal experiences, poetry, visual traces that combine to form a transcendental energy that draws you in, to absorb, to breathe. She opens the portal and we willingly walk through, to be at one with one’s self and nature, to experience the personal journey and to walk in the artist’s footsteps."
Darren Beattie - Artist and educator.
"It was a lovely spring Sunday and I’d been invited to visit a pop up exhibition in the wood called ‘Walk in the footsteps’. I knew that it would be within the trees and was really looking forward to the experience. Walking along the woodland path following the little postcard sized signs to the exhibition site was a really beautiful way to begin - walking the path and experiencing the birdsong and sensations of the woods.
After a little while I approached the area dedicated to the art works. Each piece carefully placed, or hung in the trees, suspended in the wind or gently pinned. It felt really special and was a very serene experience. Being careful to look around and down so as not to miss the small wooden images surrounded by lush moss depicting images of woodlands and figures in the woods. The fabric images echoing the trees and motion as they danced in the wind, bringing movement and natural energy to the work. The mix of surfaces used for the images created a really good contrast with paper, wood and fabric. Subtleties of the images and the mono-chromatics offering that gentle visual experiences as it evokes memories and whispers of the past being here in the present.
The sensations of the woodland setting and the art works were carefully considered and created a moving and unique experience. I felt privileged to be one of only a selection of people who were able to witness this collection of work in this setting. Beautiful and inspiring."
Maria Clarke - Wilson - Artist and educator
