Private Meeting
Robert Koenig 1982
Leave the road just south of Grizedale campsite and pass through a couple of gates, before taking a sharp left and crossing a river, and you will stumble across two small-but-perfectly-formed figures in a modest clearing, surrounded by ferns. This is 'Private Meeting', and although the pair look as if they have been standing there forever, they actually arrived in 1982 and, what's more, there used to be three of them.
Robert Koenig is a sculptor who prefers to work with wood and during his residency at Grizedale he produced several sculptures, using timber he found in the vicinity of each site.
The little men are rooted firmly in the ground and are probably about four feet high, (roughly, I didn't have a tape measure handy). You could easily miss them from the forest road, although they are visible if you know where to look. If you're prepared to potentially get your feet wet, however, you can get closer and admire the intricate carving that was involved in making these figures.They are designed to resemble early humans, as Koenig described in Peter Davies and Tony Knipe's excellent book 'A Sense Of Place':
"'Private Meeting' is a group of three standing figures carved in oak. This group helps to create a more complete environment on the theme of ancestral man, forest dweller - where the forest itself was a source for food gathering, tool and weapon making, shelter etc."
And there they happily stood, until some time around 2007/2008, when one of the figures had its head cut off in an act which, judging by the clean cut, was no accident. Presumably the head sits on somebody's mantlepiece somewhere as a kind of gruesome trophy. Anyway, soon afterwards, the now-decapitated figure was removed, turning the trio into a slightly mournful duo. Whoever the vandal was, they unwittingly turned this sculpture of primitive little men into a sombre comment on the nature of loss.
Also by this artist:
Compound For Redundant Symbols 1982
Multiple Arch 1982
The Guardians 1982
Trophies 1982
The Signpost 1983