The inspiration
I had the idea of The Carpet Forest when I was Arts Development Officer at Wyre Forest District Council and Director of Kidderminster Arts Festival which I oversaw for 11 years.
I saw the remains of the carpet industry, which originated in Kidderminster each day I travelled to work. The waste from the few remaining outlet stores strewn on the streets, the old factory’s abandoned or repurposed, the street names inspired by the industry. After the factories closed the prospects for the people in the town took a downturn. Though nature started to flourish as the polluting dyes were diluted and the waterways opened up again. This gave me the inspiration for the Carpet Forest. An immersive environment to tell a heritage story in a new way.
I decided to create a brief for a commission, I knew who I wanted to work with and what I needed to make it happen. I went to Brintons Carpets to seek support in gathering materials and research. I approached artists Jo and Kate DeBurgh who live in Malvern as I knew them to be versatile artists with an interest in environmental issues and reuse of materials, they would be ideal to interpret my idea into a large scale piece.
Funded by Arts Council England, Wyre Forest District Council with support from Brintons Carpets and The Museum of Carpet. I brought together a group of artists to collaborate on the project.
My intention was to create an immersive environment. A woodland that grew from the floor of the Town Hall that was built for the Carpet workers. This temporary space would be inspired by the building. It would be made from carpet waste, the tubes from inside the rolls, carpet scraps and offcuts. It would have a soundtrack that was created from the sound of the looms that made the carpets. The trees would have bird boxes that told stories from the last generation of workers that saw the old factories before they were computerised. The style should reflect the amazing designs of historical carpets through the ages.
The Creative Team
Jo and Kate DeBurg; were my first choice of artists to work with on this project. I was delighted when they accepted. It was the largest scale piece of work they had created to date. I’d worked with them on smaller projects in the past and had a great working relationship with them. It was a really positive experience developing the project with them. They both totally understood the aesthetic I was trying to achieve, and as the project evolved and they saw how the public interacted with it, they understood the power of such an environment.
I enlisted Andy Edwards https://drummerandyedwards.blogspot.com/ who teaches at Kidderminster College’s well known music department. Andy has an interesting musical history of his own.
Heather Wastie http://www.heatherwastie.co.uk/ a local poet and musician undertook the task of making an intimate sound archive. Heather worked with older people in the community, collecting their stories, recording and editing them and weaving some into folk songs. These were accessed through MP3 players hidden in bird boxes and listened to on headphones.
Reaching the Audiences
To entice the audience into this underused space I carpeted the street. This acted as a trial run for the forthcoming square renovation that was to happen in the coming years. Each morning I vacuumed the carpet giving me an opportunity to engaged with people, explaining the project and sparking their curiosity enough to go inside.
Babis Alexiadis a London film maker and animator who visited Kidderminster on many occasion to record the installation both indoors and out.
The project attracted large audiences many of whom made repeat visits. The Forest subsequently went on a small tour, to Bristol and to Malvern in December 2014 where it wore snow, hosted carol singers and ballet dancers.
