Interferences - High Moorland Visitor Centre, 2006
25 May - 26 July 2006 | High Moorland Visitor Centre, Princetown, Dartmoor, UK
A unique exhibition opens at Dartmoor National Park Authority’s High Moorland Visitor Centre, Princetown, this week, linking art and archaeology through the work of the Shovel Down Art Project.
The work on display has been produced as part of an on-going collaboration between visual artist Varvara Shavrova, archaeologist Helen Wickstead, and the archaeological team working on Shovel Down Bronze Age site in Dartmoor National Park. Shovel Down lies to the east of Chagford Common and approximately two Kilometres north-west of Fernworthy Reservoir.
Varvara researched the processes of drawing and recording on site and led art workshops with schoolchildren, students and archaeologists on the dig. Their drawings form part of this exhibition, encapsulating the experience of archaeological excavation, layering, revealing, mapping, recording and preserving.
Helen Wickstead, Archaeologist, the Shovel Down Art Project said:
‘The Project is both challenging and beneficial to the dig team and to the artist. Experienced archaeological illustrators for whom standard practices have become ‘second nature’ were learning to see and draw the landscape around them differently. This process of ‘unlearning’ made apparent the way archaeologists routinely see the landscape, and also revealed aspects of the archaeological material suppressed by current methods such as light, texture and movement. Conventional methods of archaeological drawing continued alongside practices that were completely new on archaeological sites, enabling different techniques to be compared and the boundaries of traditional scientific practice extended. As a result of the Shovel Down Art Project, the archive of work connected to the excavation will be far more diverse and interesting.’
As part of the exhibition, there is a special children’s activity and a self guided Princetown archaeology trail to follow as well as a photographic record of work carried out on the Shovel Down dig, captured by Photographer Chris Chapman, Varvara Shavrova and Fay Stevens.
Shovel Down opens at The High Moorland Visitor Centre, Princetown, on Friday 25 May 2006 and runs until Wednesday 26 July 2006.
Learn more about the archaeology of Dartmoor by joining one of Dartmoor National Park Authority’s guided walks. There are regular walks and activities taking place during the time of the exhibition, covering all aspects of Dartmoor’s past, from a range of starting points and suitable for a variety of ages and abilities - from children’s activities to 6 hour hill walks, exploring more remote locations.
Princetown can be reached by public transport from Plymouth, Exeter, Tavistock and Yelverton. For further information on public transport telephone traveline on 0870 608 2 608.
Dartmoor National Park Authority’s Postbridge Information Centre is hosting the popular Spirit of the Pony exhibition, celebrating the ponies on Dartmoor, the contribution they make to the cultural heritage of the area, and the enjoyment they give to local residents and to the millions that visit Dartmoor National Park each year.
Other major National Park Authority exhibitions, including Rangers, Dartmoor Crafts and Dartmoor Rock can also be viewed online.
Previous Events
- Test Pit
- Manual Setting
- Earthscapes: Geology + Geography Seminar
- Touchstone
- Stonehenge Riverside: The Ventral Surface
- Another Proof of the Preceding Theory Screening at the Herzliya Biennale
- Ventriloquist
- Art and Archaeology Seminar
- Simon Callery Field Drawings
- Drawing Stonehenge
- Virtual World Exhibition: Stonehenge Riverside Project 2007 Artist Residencies
- Site Specific: Between Archaeologists and Artists
- Some Time Now
- Interferences - High Moorland Visitor Centre, 2006
- Interferences - offiCina, Beijing, China, 2006
- The Big Draw
- Shovel Down National Archaeology Week 2005
- The UCL Big Draw Event
Publications
- Documenting the Past - Cheshire Life Article, November 2008
- Drawing from the Past
- Drawing Time - British Archaeology Magazine Article
- South of Woodhenge. An Interim Report on the 2007 excavations
- Land Division and identity in Later Prehistoric Dartmoor, South-West Britain
- Recent Approaches to the Archaeology of Land Allotment
- Historical context and chronology of Bronze Age land enclosure on Dartmoor, UK
- Drawing: The Purpose
- Theorising Tenure: A Landscape Analysis of Later Prehistoric Dartmoor
- Summary Report of the 2004 Excavations and Survey at Shovel Down
- Summary Report of the 2003 Excavations and Survey at Shovel Down
- Excavations of Bronze Age field systems, Shovel Down, Dartmoor, 2003