Short discussion of design at a stately home, Hestercombe

 

I had not heard of Hestercombe.

I researched it by reading a chapter in  British Art and Environment, Changes, Challenges and Responses since the Industrial Revolution  Edited by Charlotte Gould and Sophie Mesplede, publ Routledge 2022. The chapter, no 4, is an interview with Tim Martin. Charlotte and Sophie start the interview by mentioning that "Tim had curated a major contemporary arts exhibition at Hestercombe Art Gallery which crowned a long process of garden and house restoration initiated in the 1990s." "As the eighteenth-century layout of the estate had finally been reclaimed, the artists featured in the gallery upstairs were invited to imaginatively "leap the fence." "In doing so they set out to interrogate boundaries not just between inside and outside, but also between art forms, private and public, local and global.  The refurbished gardens which the art displays overlooked had just opened to the public for an affordable fee, whereas the Georgian landscape gardens had been created and then continually revamped for the exclusive enjoyment of mostly aristocratic owners. In that particular context, British artist Mark Hosking's rice harvesting machine (Untitled, 1997, painted wood) could be read as a commentary on the invisible links tying a place like Hestercombe - a seat of power, class and money - to the environmental resources of developing countries which had once been part of the British empire and helped many landowners build their fortunes at home. (If anything these sort of interrogations have gathered apace in recent years). Tim stated that "Our archivists cannot, as yet, find any links in Hestercombe's past to slavery or exploitation. .indeed, there are accounts of past owner's families supporting the anti-slavery movement." Hestercombe was, however, a seat of power and Tim thought some histories may be uncomfortable.

Tim stated that they had in the past been offered "historic permanent collections." These have been rejected as Tim is convinced that the art on offer at Hestercombe needs to focus on contemporary art to try and engage with present global issues, such as the environment, as well as learning from concerns of the past. 

Tim stated that "Hestercombe's painting history forms part of the very early beginnings of the British landscape tradition."

Garden planting is representative of changes.  Tim states "I often try and imagine the shock and surprise that guests to Hestercombe would have experienced in the eighteenth-century garden, or indeed people witnessing for the first time Gertrude Jekyll's radical Edwardian planting on Edwin Lutyen's "honest" structural garden architecture, as present in our formal gardens. Jekyll  . . rebelled against the planting of formal Victorian beds.  Today we all use Jekyll's planting techniques but, in the early 1900s, it must have seemed quite radical."

He continued by informing his interviewers that they are trying to embody the "green" agenda in how they manage the land. Goldfinches are returning, because there is enough seed "from wildflowers growing in areas we would normally mow."

I find it interesting that the vision for Hestercombe which could have employed enough historic riches to make that a focus, was bold enough to direct its' agenda to highlighting modern problems and issues.  Acknowledging a link to the past and the legacy that it gives us. This seems to have caught the spirit of the age with many artists using their skills to join in this vision.  

An example of current innovative art at Hestercombe is Simon Faithfull's Earth Spin #2, 2018, "carved into the lawn the speed (652 mph) and direction the Earth's surface is spinning through space at Hestercombe,"