Fancy a cultural jaunt to the Cotswolds? Then head to this year’s garden sculpture exhibition at Sudeley Castle and soak up new works from the likes of Michael Craig- Martin, Carsten Holler and Rolf Sachs, all displayed in an utterly bucolic setting. Responding to the playground theme, 18 artists and designers have created one off pieces, from the haunting damsel in the trees by Kevin Francis Gray to Jeppe Hein’s mirrored labyrinth and Henry Krokatsis’ antler candles, on show in the private chapel alongside the tomb of Katharine Parr, Henry VIII’s last wife.
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Now in its third year, the outdoor event is curated by Sudeley owner and founder of the Gagosian gallery, Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst and Elliot McDonald of Hiscox Art Projects. Bringing a new angle to this year’s show is design dealer Kenny Schachter who pulled in Zaha Hadid, Arik Levy, Tom Dixon and Richard Woods and worked with them to create pieces that would work amid Sudeley’s semi-ruins and verdant gardens.
Wallpaper caught up with him while he was triangulating between Sudeley, Hamburg and Basel.
The Sudeley summer show is traditionally known as an art event. How did you get involved?
Mollie approached me, which was flattering. I think she did so because the art/design crossover has become an important trend in the art market and mingling them both in a place like Sudeley creates a new paradigm. Phillips de Pury & Company is selling the work in this show, and in my mind, this sort of selling exhibition is much more dynamic and interesting than anything a snotty little gallery in Mayfair would do.
Design art is comfortable in an urban, gallery-based setting. How do you think it will go down in a quintessentially rural setting like Sudeley?
Sudeley is one of the most beautiful places in the world and I think showing contemporary art and design there creates a nice juxtaposition. Zaha Hadid’s slide and Tom Dixon’s swing can be used by visitors, and that’s fun. There is nothing more intriguing than contemporizing somewhere like Sudeley, but of course some people aren’t going to like it.
How did you decide which designers to approach?
They are all people I have worked with before, or am working with. Zaha and I have been working on the Z-Car concept car and I am selling limited edition models of her buildings in bronze and silver. They are all people I feel cross the boundaries between art and design.
What's next?
I’m involved in a similar sort of show at Chatsworth House in September, and I’m working with Zaha on her first ever London building – nine flats and commercial space on Hoxton Square, as well as curating various shows, including one right now in a private museum in Hamburg.
ADDRESS
Sudeley Castle
Winchcombe
Gloucestershire
UK GL54 5JD
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