My aim is to create an outcome that interrupts the river so I’ve been looking at suitable locations. The stretch below is close to home and passes across open farm land. A public path crosses the land at the lower right and gets very close to the river at one point. This is one possible location though others are being considered. The criteria below are being assessed for each potential location:
- Access to both sides of the river to enable fixings to be placed, so a bridge crossing nearby
- River depth that will not dry out in June, when the interruption will happen
- River speed that is reasonably slow, so paddles will turn slow enough to read
- Direction of approach ideally with sun behind the viewer at peak times
- Banks accessible enough to allow fixings to be securely placed
- Ideally away from wildlife rich areas to reduce the chance of disturbance
- Optimum human traffic during a day, how much I desire needs to be worked out
The other concerns are vandalism and public health & safety. These are still being considered and I am weighing up the options of both a temporary manned installation and a day long experience. This will be decided later when I have fine tuned the ideal location. The two extremes would be using a remote location that is never visited (hence audio visual recording becomes the art) and adjacent to a popular weekend walking route. With the later option there is also the option of holding a day long event and landowner permission could be sought for this, though the risk with that is raising my head above the parapet if said owner gives a resounding “No” as an answer. Difficult decisions but consultation with other land artists would be useful.