VISITORS to a dale beauty spot will come across an extra attraction during the coming weeks – a piece of specially commissioned art.
The North Pennines AONB Partnership commissioned artist Rob Mulholland to come up with something inspired by the geology of upper Teesdale which could be installed at Low Force.
Mr Mulholland produced Natural Creation, which is based around highly polished metal figures and shapes in which visitors can see themselves and the landscape reflected together.
It is part of a three year programme of new work supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and a range of other funders, in this case Arts Council England, celebrating and building on the North Pennines’ UNESCO Global Geopark designation.
The geology of Low Force has a story which goes back more than 320 million years, to the carboniferous period.
Millions of years of changing climates and environments created alternating layers of limestone and sandstone rock, sometimes with a layer of shale.
Some 295 million years ago, in the early permian period, molten magma welled up through cracks and fissures in the layered rocks and spread out in a roughly horizontal layer between the Farne Islands and Teesdale.
It never reached the surface – if it had there would have been a volcano in the North Pennines – but instead it cooled underground for about 50 years, forming a hard, flat-lying layer that the old miners called the Whin Sill.
Since then, the rocks above the Whin Sill have been weathered and eroded away.
Where the hard, erosion resistant Whin Sill crops out across the course of rivers, it forms the lip of waterfalls like those at Low Force and nearby High Force.
Mr Mulholland said: “Natural Creation celebrates the creative power and majesty of nature. My installation imagines the geological forces shaping and forming the land over millions of years.
“My aim is to reflect the dynamic forces at play in nature through the representation of the Whin Sill forcing its way through the ground.”
He added: “The mirrored figures represent our innate connection with our natural environment. They stand passively guarding the elements; a vestige of our past and a mirror to our future.”
Chris Woodley-Stewart, director of the AONB partnership and UNESCO Global Geopark, said: “Rob’s work gets us to look at the landscape and our place in it in a different way.
“It is a talking point and we hope people will come from all over to see the work and the fantastic Teesdale environment in which it is set.”
The installation is in place on the north bank of the Tees at Low Force until mid-October. Parking is available at the North Pennines AONB Partnership’s Bowlees Visitor Centre, with a five to ten minute walk to the artwork.
AONB officials are hoping visitors will share their experience of visiting the installation.
To share images of Natural Creation on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, use the hashtag #lowforceart.
