A thatched pavilion tinted gold by the sun sits on a wetland in Cambridgeshire, a refuge on a blustery late-winter day. Inside, visitors nestle into niches in the hand-milled wood structure. They lean against the supple straw walls, looking up at the blue sky through a perfect oculus in the conical ceiling, like worshipers at a tiny countryside Pantheon.
The experience is calm, meditative and spontaneous with the whiff of the spiritual, happening, as it were, on the last day of the leap year. Yet Mother…, designed by the Herefordshire-based practice Studio Morison, is the culmination of years of machinations. It all began in 2017, when Arts Council England asked the public to nominate little-known rural locations across the east: Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Partner galleries, including nearby Wysing Arts Centre, then commissioned ten artworks inspired by those settings. The results form a series called New Geographies, a creative redrawing of the East England map. Heather and Ivan Morison set theirs in Wicken Fen, the National Trust’s oldest nature reserve.
Studio Morison, MOTHER…, 2020 Courtesy of Wysing Arts Centre and National Trust for New Geographies
Inspiration for the Morisons included the recovery memoir Nature Cure by Richard Mabey, an author and naturalist who reconnected with the East Anglian landscape to assuage his own depression. Mother… is their take on a therapeutic refuge in the image of a Fen hayrick, or haystack, a common sight on this landscape going back centuries. Working with a master thatcher who began his career here in Wicken Fen, they followed a simple, traditional cylindrical shape using local materials. The uncomplicated experience benefits from natural scents and sunlight, which streams in through narrow doorways throughout the day. ‘The sculpture offers an opportunity to still the mind for a while by focusing on the simple material qualities of the work, and the changing nature of the landscape that surrounds it,’ says Ivan.
Studio Morison, MOTHER…, 2020, Courtesy of Wysing Arts Centre and National Trust for New Geographies
The title is up for interpretation. It emphasises protection and nurturing but leaves the rest open. Mother… Land? Mother… Earth? ‘These are important and powerful ideas by which we define our identities,’ says Ivan.
Studio Morison, MOTHER…, 2020, Courtesy of Wysing Arts Centre and National Trust for New Geographies
INFORMATION
’Mother...’ in situ until October 2020, Wicken Fen.
ADDRESS
Wicken Fen Visitor Centre
Lode Lane
Wicken
Ely CB7 5XP
-
The Wallpaper* Design Issue comes with our Salone del Mobile must-seesThe May 2025 issue of Wallpaper* is on sale now, taking in Milan Design Week, the Venice Biennale, and a very stylish tea party
-
Aboard Gio Ponti's colourful Arlecchino train in Milian, a conversation about design with FormafantasmaThe design duo boards Gio Ponti’s train bound for the latest Prada Frames symposium at Milan Design Week
-
The ultimate high-performance earbuds, courtesy of McLaren and Bowers & WilkinsThe new Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 McLaren Edition continues a decade’s worth of cross-pollination between these two tech-focused British manufacturers
-
From counter-culture to Northern Soul, these photos chart an intimate history of working-class Britain‘After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989 – 2024’ is at Edinburgh gallery Stills
-
Surrealism as feminist resistance: artists against fascism in Leeds‘The Traumatic Surreal’ at the Henry Moore Institute, unpacks the generational trauma left by Nazism for postwar women
-
From activism and capitalism to club culture and subculture, a new exhibition offers a snapshot of 1980s BritainThe turbulence of a colourful decade, as seen through the lens of a diverse community of photographers, collectives and publications, is on show at Tate Britain until May 2025
-
Inside Jack Whitten’s contribution to American contemporary artAs Jack Whitten exhibition ‘Speedchaser’ opens at Hauser & Wirth, London, and before a major retrospective at MoMA opens next year, we explore the American artist's impact
-
Frieze Sculpture takes over Regent’s ParkTwenty-two international artists turn the English gardens into a dream-like landscape and remind us of our inextricable connection to the natural world
-
Jasleen Kaur wins the Turner Prize 2024Jasleen Kaur has won the Turner Prize 2024, recognised for her work which reflects upon everyday objects
-
Peggy Guggenheim: ‘My motto was “Buy a picture a day” and I lived up to it’Five years spent at her Sussex country retreat inspired Peggy Guggenheim to reframe her future, kickstarting one of the most thrilling modern-art collections in history
-
Please do touch the art: enter R.I.P. Germain’s underground world in LiverpoolR.I.P. Germain’s ‘After GOD, Dudus Comes Next!’ is an immersive installation at FACT Liverpool
