Linda Gordon

Collaborative commission for VARC (Visual Arts in Rural Communities), Northumberland.

In a clearing, just to the side of the front lawn of Highgreen Manor, is a drift of tall wooden poles, like a small copse or thicket - lightly embracing the house and its immediate gardens, offering a sense of protection from prevailing winds and natural forces. At the same time, the eye is drawn outwards towards expansive views of surrounding landscape.

Assembled with several hundred red-painted dowelling rods, the installation makes a wide spectrum of local references: the proximity of Kielder industrial forest; the presence of underground water; the violent and bloody history of this Border region, and a more recent history of copper, lead and coal mining.

Divining Rods presents a threshold between dwelling and landscape and between earth and air. It is a place where building, land, people and place interact.