THE CHILTERN SCULPTURE TRAIL About 20 miles from my home and just a couple of miles from the M40 between High Wycombe and Oxford is the Chiltern Sculpture Trail. It features a changing selection of pieces by contemporary artists in the eighty acre Cowleaze Wood, not far from junction 5, beside the road to Christmas Common. [ Click here for a decent map of the area from the good people at www.streetmap.co.uk ] [ Or this link is for a wider view of the area from the same source. The trail is located in the centre square, just where the arrow is. ] I've visited on many occasions (entry is free, and it's open all year round during daylight hours but there aren't any toilets, so go before you go!) and I've often taken pictures there, some of which are below. [ For more information, click here to visit my development version of the official site which is kept updated with changes to the Trail, unlike this page ] Note: This page contains some quite large images which may take a minute to load. Once all the squares below have appeared, the page is ready for you to explore: [ ]

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The numbered targets on the map above correspond to the following works: (The missing numbers, such as 1, 4, 5, etc. refer to works no longer in situ.)
No.	TITLE OF THE SCULPTURE	ARTIST	YEAR	MATERIAL(S) USED
2	Rural Industry	Sophie Horton	1990	Handmade bricks & forest floor
3	Fish Tree	Paul Amey	1990	Steel & cast resin
6	Untitled	Hideo Furuta	1993	Pink granite
7	Touching Earth And Sky	Judith Cowan	1991	Bronze
8	Coming Ready Or Not	Chlöe Brown	2000	Telegraph pole & loud-hailer
9	Reservoir Of Gods	Faisal Abdu'allah	1999	Concrete & stainless steel
12	Heimat II	Roger Perkins	19991	Tin, wood, steel & toys
14	Untitled	Thomas Eisl	1992?	Wing mirrors
15	Nature Girl	Laura Ford	1993	Painted bronze
16	Bench	Richard La Trobe Bateman	1993	Oak & stainless steel
17	'that thin red streak'	Mel Jackson	1993	Steel, aluminium & acrylic
18	Above And Below	Andrew Sabin	1994	Black paint & strapping
19	My Frozen Hand	Rui Chafes	1994	Painted steel
21	Forest Floor	Anya Gallaccio	1995?	Polypropylene carpet & wood
22	Benches	Fred Baier	1996	Painted steel
The following new pieces don't yet have official numbers:
i	A Platform For Self-Elevation	Jonathan Griffin	2001	Laminated wood
ii	Information Station 100 Yards	Nick Chate	2002	Steel & magnifying glass
iii	Southern Electric	Louise K Wilson	2002	Earth mound & stainless steel
iv	Untitled (Chiltern)	Tom Woolford	2002	Concrete
v	Photosynthesis	Peter J Evans	2002	Glass & aluminium
vi	This Is The Future	Bram Arnold	2003	Bricks, tarmac & paint

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The works are shown below in a rough 'spiral walk into the woods' sequence. iv - Untitled (Chiltern) by Tom Woolford. 2002 - Concrete. A new work for 2002, Tom's untitled tower acts not only as a boldly formal shape marking the entrance to the wilderness of the wood, but also as an information point where a map and descriptions of the new installations are displayed. Its stark industrial practicality is muted by an attractive colour scheme which softens its impact on the landscape. 2 - Rural industry by Sophie Horton. 1990 - Handmade bricks & forest floor. One of the original sculptures on the trail, this miniature 'chimney' was built from hundreds of tiny hand made concrete bricks. It stands besides the path like a mile stone or signpost. A signpost which clearly says, 'The Past, This Way'. Well, it's clear to me, anyway. You're free to make up your own mind. That's the joy of art. i - A Platform for Self-Elevation by Jonathan Griffin. 2001 - Laminated wood. This is a new piece right at the northern edge of the trail. It tempts the visitor to climb it to better view the fields beyond the wood. Looking not unlike a skateboarders ramp, it threatens to become a terrible plaything in 'the wrong hands'. Click either red-rimmed icon above to see a video of me doing just this. But without the skateboard. 3 - Fish Tree by Paul Amey. 1990 - Steel & cast resin. Almost as if 'hidden in plain view', this lyrical work is easy to walk straight past. A closer look at its trunk reveals its surface to be rusting steel and not bark. As your eyes climb to its branches, incredulity creeps in. Like the opening page of a child's story, the Fish Tree seems to be a small part of a wider whole. Perhaps all the trees in this working wood (which was planted between 1957 and 1966 by the Forestry Commission) are Fish Trees, but we happen to be visiting out of the flowering season? 16 - Bench by Richard La Trobe Bateman. 1993 - Oak & stainless steel. Now missing the 'bench' part of the structure (on my last visit) this sculpture may have lost its practicality but none of its lighthouse-esque visual impact. Sited at the far eastern corner of the wood, this meditative piece enjoys great views of the open rolling Chiltern hills. Close-by there's a gate to go beyond the claustrophobic bounds of the wood... The Chiltern Sculpture Trail is located in a lovely part of the Chilterns, close to the Aston Rowant Nature Reserve which is also well worth a visit. Views of the area, like this one accross Wormsley Estate, are often dominated by a huge communications tower which stands on the top of the ridge. It's actually a handy landmark if you're looking for the trail, as the road to Cowleaze Wood starts close to the tower. v - Photosynthesis by Peter J Evans. 2002 - Glass & aluminium A hard-to-find location, tucked away off of the main trail, and a strange viewpoint makes this work an unusual one. A glass window in the ground gives the visitor a glimpse into a subterranean world. Sadly its solar-powered lights weren't working when I visited, and the window was very hard to see through because of condensation. So I can't really say exactly what lies beneath the toughened glass. ii - Information Station 100 Yards by Nick Chate. 2002 - Steel & magnifying glass A magnifying glass invites you to use this 'glass slide' to view objects from the wood itself. Below the glass is an engraved metal plate, which shows several specimen jars waiting for the visitor to 'fill them' with things to inspect. Quite a low-key piece which, I have to say, left me feeling slightly disappointed. 9 - Reservoir of Gods by Faisal Abdu'allah. 1999 - Concrete & stainless steel. Twin three-sided concrete pillars support six striking images of a black youth on mirror-like stainless steel plates. Thus the viewer can see themselves reflected by the work too. It's supposed to make you consider the diversity of local, rural communities. Discuss - 15 points. vi - This Is The Future by Bram Arnold. 2003 - Bricks, tarmac & paint. A very apt title, given the state of the work when I last saw it... On a wet and windy day in April 2003 I came across Bram Arnold working on his new piece, This is the Future. As you can see, there is some way to go, but you can be sure it'll be a substantial work, based on the size of its brick foundations. Another picture will follow when this sculpture is finished. iii - Southern Electric by Louise K Wilson. 2002 - Earth mound, stainless steel & power lines. A mound of earth and a plaque detailing the local power lines result in a difficult sculpture to 'access' in any way more meaningful than climbing it. However, once up there, the change of perspective of the avenue of trees which borders the power lines, plus the lines themselves, leaves one with a profound feeling of... something. Not one of my favourite pieces. 8 - Coming Ready Or Not by Chlöe Brown. 2000 - Telegraph pole & solar-powered speaker. On approach, this piece can make you jump when it begins to count from 1 to 100 in a measured, disembodied male voice. It seems to be offering to play a game with you, but if you hide, will it really come seeking you? Or will it leave you shivering in a bush, while its loud-hailer cone fixedly watches the trees for signs of movement? I find this work much more playful and fun than most on the trail, and enjoy seeing how far from it I can get before I can't hear its voice any more. Click here for a 432Kb Rotorscope video of this work. 19 - My Frozen Hand by Rui Chafes. 1994 - Painted steel. Five different sized, anonymous, sinister, black steel boxes are held aloft by various trees. In this remote south part of the trail, one can't help feeling some unease below these forms, which are forever beyond our reach. They silently tease us. Are they the five fingers of Rui's frozen hand? Is that why they're black, with frostbite? No matter how you plead with then, they're saying nothing. Their lids are remaining sealed. 17 - 'that thin red streak' by Mel Jackson. 1993 - Steel, aluminium & acrylic. A mirror attached to a tree, an aluminium ring of fence and a red fall of 'cloth' make you question this enclosed space. Is it so you can enjoy watching yourself live out your Matador fantasies? Whatever this formal area is 'for', Mel Jackson has left a strong feeling of 'ocassion' in what was once just a woodland clearing. 22 - Benches by Fred Baier. 1996 - Painted steel. Scattered around the car park and picnic area, six of these brightly coloured welded steel pieces invite interaction... in the shape of a nice sit down and a bite to eat. ;-) 12 - Heimat II by Roger Perkins. 1991 - Tin, wood, steel & toys. Seven little rusty tin houses stand amongst the trees, built on legs as if to avoid some ground-based terror. Peering in through their dirty windows reveals... more grim, mostly. However, at least two of these structures contain toys, which invokes a certain feeling of loss. These dolls-house-like structures remind me of dusty attic rooms, where abandoned playthings hold echoes of fading childhood memories. 14 - Untitled by Thomas Eisl. 1992? - Wing mirrors. Wing mirrors have been attached to many trees in a small clearing, leaving a visitor feeling 'watched', if only by themselves. A picture appears above because I've now managed to find this work again! 15 - Nature Girl by Laura Ford. 1993 - Painted bronze. Her red shoes contrast with the earthy, natural colours of her tree torso. Is Nature Girl a strange genetic experiment, gone wrong? Did the stump of a tree one day decide it'd like to see more of the world and grew legs? Is she just a free-thinking, paper mache modelling trick-or-treater? Whatever her history, Nature Girl is on odd piece that reminds me of 'Super Lamb Banana' which is in Liverpool, in the way that it combines very different forms. 18 - Above and Below by Andrew Sabin. 1994 - Black paint & strapping. Silver coloured strapping borders painted black stripes on the thin tree trunks in an area of the wood. This brings an air of order to an otherwise disordered, natural place, and leaves the viewer wondering why these trees have been singled out. They have been 'marked', which in another place would suggest that they were for the chop. But here it seems that they have been highlighted to allow visitors to, unusually, 'see the trees for the wood'. 6 - Untitled by Hideo Furuta. 1990 - Pink granite. This sculpture is in the form of a shaped stone which looks strangely at home in the 'artificially natural' surroundings of the woodland. Its rough surfaces and raised lip, which retains rainwater, seem to invite nature to absorb it back into the ground, below a covering of moss. Conversely, it can appear to have been welled-up by the ground; some sort of cooling magma spot to be squeezed. 7 - Touching Earth and Sky by Judith Cowan. 1991 - Bronze. Two curving forms which reach up into the sky, as well as down into the earth. The cone gives a very satisfying bong when lightly struck, and both objects collect water when it's raining; truly when the sky touches the earth. Nearby is a memorial to the crew of a RAF plane who died when it crashed in these woods during WWII. Does that look like a crumpled nose-cone and a twisted bomb-bay door to anyone else? Perhaps referring to their almost fungal shape would be in better taste... 21 - Forest Floor by Anya Gallaccio. 1995? - Polypropylene carpet & wood. One of my favourite pieces, which was sadly missing on my last visit, was a few hundred square feet of carpeted woodland floor. Surreally brilliant! I had an urge to bring a van up here with a three-piece suite, coffee table and a portable telly that could be run off of a battery to make a complete 'living room' (very apt as trees grow up through the floor) of it. Who knows, if they ever reinstate this piece, maybe I still will. Thanks go to my mate Gavin, who appears in several of the pictures above to demonstrate or show the scale of sculptures. Also thanks to Charles Gray for his kind offer.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my Chiltern Sculpture Trail page. If you're ever in the area, and don't mind getting a bit of mud or dust on your cars carpets, I can recommend a visit to the real thing. Please use the links below to visit some of my sites other artistic pages. May 2003: In a strange twist of fate I bumped into a chap who helps run the Trust which opperates the Trail. We got talking, he liked this personal page. The rest is web-design history... Click here to see the official CST site Click here to see some more art, this time of the Phoenix Trail. Click here to see some pictures I've taken at Stowe House. Please close this window to return to the main site.