Taking The Air

February - August 2017

Ripples Like Scales

This residency was inspired by the 18th-century landscape designer Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown who created a park in the  Surrey Hills in which people could take a leisurely stroll, enjoy the picturesque views and experience the health benefits of fresh air. 

During the six-month residency, the variations in air quality around the 260-acre estate were observed and assessed against the empirical measure of the Beaufort Scale for Land and Sea.  The humid stillness of the Japanese garden was contrasted with the cool breeze sweeping over the lake and rising up to the Parterre (in front of Gatton Hall) where birds of prey would hover on the updraft.

The air quality in key locations was then 'memorialised' with brass plaques on oak posts, and a map created to provide visitors with an alternative sensory focus as they walked around the park.

Beaufort Scale for Land and Sea 

Exploring the changing air quality around the park