Wild Boar Clearing
Sally Matthews 1987
One of the classic Grizedale sculptures, 'Wild Boar Clearing' is in fact still there, despite it being taken off the guide maps several years ago. The number of boars apparently hiding in this small bit of woodland varies according to different sources, but I make it five. Two of them are stuck out in a bog, making them incredibly hard to reach, as my friend Ken and I discovered many years ago when he lost his shoe in an attempt to get a close-up photograph. All three of Matthews' Grizedale works are of wildlife scenes and 'Wild Boar Clearing' feels as if you have stumbled across a group of real wild boar (or a 'sounder', to give them the correct collective noun). Matthews tells the story of the sculpture's creation:
"I can only make animals as I see them, through my own understanding. I studied boars before making them at Grizedale, but the atmosphere and reality of the forest influenced the form they took. Looking for a site, I discovered different areas and found brush, dead wood, twisted roots and other debris of the forest. These materials were appropriate for the boars, bringing their structures and surfaces to life.
I began to make the first wallowing boars out of the mud they lay in, but they began to disintegrate almost as soon as I made them. I decided to add cement to make them more permanent, although they will still not last for many years. They will decay and change like their surroundings. The trees they are under will be harvested and the land replanted."
Despite Matthew's prediction, the boars live on. They are showing their age, of course, but when the trees in the area were felled, the foresters left this area standing so that the sculpture could remain a little longer. In fact, extraordinarily given their apparent frailty, all three of Sally Matthews' sculptures at Grizedale can still be found, although her 'Wolves' are looking a bit worse for wear since they were exposed to the elements due to tree felling.
Once upon a time, a sight like this would have been a regular occurrence in the forest. The word 'Grizedale' means 'valley of the pigs', and in viking times, from where the word originates, the boar roamed the forest in prolific numbers.
Also by this artist:
Wolves 1993