Christopher’s leg up to the plight of Cumbrian farming
Last updated 05:40, Friday, 26 September 2008
YOU WOULD expect a few pairs of wellington boots on a Cumbrian farm, but 100?
Welcome to High Yield by Christopher Collier. His colourful installation features 100 pairs of upturned boots sprouting in a field, which examine the uncertain future of hill farming in the county.
The 27-year-old explained: “High Yield is to do with the decline of hill farming in Cumbria, one of the county’s most iconic industries.
“The wellies reference farms and farmers, and will be positioned upended, sticking out of the ground, and represent how farming has gone under. But they can also represent arable and crops germinating. It depends how you look at it.
“They are positioned in a sheep fold, because I thought that in a massive landscape they might get lost, so we are using one at a farm near Glenridding. We will camp nearby and my girlfriend is helping me set it up. But I am hoping to use the farmer’s quad bike; the parking is around one kilometre away and we will have about 10 trips to the car and then with the wellies in rucksacks!”
Christopher studied and worked in Aberystwyth, and is currently based in Hereford,y.
This is the first time he has been involved with FRED. “It is a long way up to Cumbria,” he added. “But FRED is something I’ve always wanted to do.”
High Yield is in the sheep fold at Grisedale Valley head. There is parking at Glenridding or Patterdale.
Turn up the small B road from Grisedale bridge, ascending through a wood until you reach the valley. Walk along the route of the beck, up the valley for about two km.
The sheep fold is near the head of the valley next to a small bridge.
ROSALIND GIBB
