Their Periwinkle Shelter has been unveiled at RSPB Medmerry Nature Reserve (Earnley viewpoint).
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers, lovely to
00:06speak to Mark and Rebecca Ford of Slendon. You have just unveiled something very, very
00:11special indeed. Explain what is this wonderful thing you have created and what does it represent?
00:22It is a four and a half metre tall periwinkle sculpture shelter.
00:28Yes, and it's at the Medmury Nature Reserve. The inspiration, Phil, was we did some research
00:37before we decided what we were going to do and we discovered that during the archaeological
00:43excavations of the area before they did the managed retreat of the sea, they discovered
00:49medieval willow baskets and in the bottom of the willow baskets were these tiny periwinkle
00:54shells and we were just really inspired by that and that connection to the landscape
01:02and the periwinkle shells and the woven willow baskets because we work predominantly in willow.
01:07That sounds a beautiful starting point, but the point is you've wrapped all this up within
01:12the concept of shelter, haven't you? What does that mean?
01:16Yes, exactly. Shelter, well we feel that it's such an exposed point on the Nature Reserve
01:25that there is no shelter from the wind or the rain, so if you're on a very long walk
01:30around to the beach at Medmury, you've got somewhere to go, somewhere to sit and look
01:35at the stilt pools, which is fresh water, or across the sea there and look at the birds
01:41and the animals and it's a lovely spot to be in, but shelter, we find it's much nicer
01:46to be inside sculpture than just to look at it.
01:49Absolutely, and Rebecca, you were saying a lovely thing just now, that someone you heard
01:55had been inside one of your pieces and arrived at a life-changing decision because of the
02:00sense of peace that came with simply being there.
02:03Yes, exactly. So, yeah, she shared when we met at a party and we were talking, oh, you
02:10know what it's like, what do you do for a living? I said, well, make large-scale woven
02:14sculpture, and she said, yes, I sat in one of your sculptures and I made a life-changing
02:19decision and it was like, she just looked really kind of like, and that's what it, there's
02:24a sense that you, it's, there's a real, it's hard to explain, Phil, but there's a real,
02:31people experience this moment where they just relax and just can be and look, because we
02:38always create viewing points that when you sit inside one of our sculptures, there's
02:44a view that's, that's, that's, we, what do you, what would you say?
02:49You're framing, you're framing the landscape.
02:51Exactly.
02:52Yeah, so you'll look, you've got various views, including one which is of a, of a large marsh
02:57harrier viewing window, and when the light comes through, when the, when the sun shines
03:02through onto the ground, it should leave like a shadow of the bed on the ground.
03:07Wow, that's beautiful, and presumably part of that peace and tranquillity that comes
03:11with it is the fact that what you have created is absolutely at one with the landscape, isn't
03:16it? That's the point, isn't it?
03:19It is, it is, it is at one with the landscape and it's also a statement in the landscape.
03:24Yeah.
03:25So when you're walking up the path, you can't miss it. It's, it's large, it looms, the landscape
03:30is, is really wide, and so as you're walking like from about half a mile away, you can
03:37see this, and I think the first instinct is like, what on earth is that? And as you
03:42approach it, I think it's quite intriguing to actually think, oh, it looks like a, is
03:49that a shell? Like, it just, and it's very, so you've got the sea behind it, and on a
03:55clear day, the Isle of Wight, and then you can see all of the shipping that's going up
03:59and down the Solent, and the, the change of the weather and everything is, it's a very
04:04dramatic landscape, and it's also feels like a real wilderness, so to have this shelter
04:10in this landscape really works.
04:13It sounds fantastic. Congratulations both on the piece, lovely to speak to you, and I will
04:18be sitting inside it at the first possible opportunity. Thank you so much.
04:22That's great, we'll join you for a cup of tea.
04:24Absolutely.