Issue 39 Sept 23 - Journal - Page 76
Abbot Hall reopens
with Julie Brook’s
‘What is it That Will Last?’
A decade of work by British artist Julie Brook goes
on display in a major exhibition for Abbot Hall art gallery
in Kendal, Cumbria.
The reopening show invites viewers to explore the
complex relationship between artist, land and the forces
of nature.
Inside the gallery visitors will experience Julie Brook’s
What is it That Will Last? (20 May to 30 Dec 2023).
Running across both floors of Abbot Hall, this exhibition
offers a rare insight into Julie Brook’s extensive body of
work made in remote locations in Scotland, Japan and
Cumbria.
Incorporating sound, photography and drawing, What is
it That Will Last? presents the artist's immersive
relationship with the landscape.
The exhibition offers an exciting extension of the
experience beyond the gallery walls and into the
Cumbrian landscape with a new large-scale outdoor
sculpture created by Brook at Holker Hall’s Deer Park.
Scotland-based Julie Brook (b. 1961) works primarily
in remote landscapes, creating large scale sculptural
interventions that express the invisible forces - gravity,
time and tide – that govern our lives.
Julie Brook said: “I am so pleased to have my work exhibited
in the Lake District. The show at Abbot Hall will focus on
work I’ve made in remote landscapes in the form of sound,
film, photography and drawing.
“I am excited for people to experience the exhibition and then
travel into the landscape to see the physical piece at Holker
Hall. The installation resonates with what people will see in
the exhibition.
“The piece, made of Brathay Cumbrian Black stone, is in
dialogue with the hills where it originally came from and is
accessible to people of all ages.”
Abbot Hall is one of Britain’s leading small art galleries,
set in a beautifully restored Grade I listed Georgian building on the banks of the River Kent in Kendal, Cumbria.
It was temporarily closed in February 2020 to enable essential renovation work. The gallery reopens as a place
for members of the community to gather, experience art
and be inspired to create.
What is it That Will Last? signals a fresh direction for
Abbot Hall as the gallery aligns its programme to explore
the themes of landscape, ecology and identity through its
collection and new collaborations.
Several works from Abbot Hall’s collection will also be
on display throughout the exhibition. Selected with Julie
Brook, works including those by Frank Auerbach, John
Piper, John Ruskin, JMW Turner and Elizabeth Frink, will
further explore the timeless relationship between artist
and landscape.
Above, Artist Julie Brook in a Cumbrian quarry, Credit Robin Zahler
Below, Abbot Hall, Kendal Cumbria, photo credit Lakeland Arts
