Exmoor National Dress (for Triparks)

A residency by Karen Guthrie in Exmoor National Park

Project: Triparks was a project providing 6 artists' residencies to explore commonalities and differences between three of England's National Parks: Exmoor, Dartmoor and Northumberland.

Date: Ongoing
Commissioner: Aune Head Arts, Somerset Arts Work & Allenheads Contemporary Arts

I spent time throughout spring and summer 2008 in Exmoor National Park (Somerset). Myself and another artist, Harald Smykla were based in the Park, whilst Triparks had also commissioned Paul Grimmer, Bridget Kennedy, High Nankivell and Volkhardt Muller to work in Northumberland and Dartmoor.

For my project Exmoor National Dress, I invented just that, a costume which I then used to make photographic portraits of Exmoor people I've met along they way. I also made a short film (20 mins) following the process of the project and the people I met along the way.
Much of my time was spent on historic research and tracking down local makers, like Tom Lock of Hawkridge who carves and makes things with antlers. He contributed a head-dress to the final costume, and you can find out more about Tom's fascinating life here. Other local contributors are landscapist Maurice Bishop and Shearwell Data, who make animal eartags used in the costume as fixings.

From the links on the right you can see a gallery of the Exmoor portraits I made, or look at some of my research, plus documentation of a stand we did at the Dunster Show, a traditional country event.

There was a preview of the finished project in Dulverton Town Hall from Nov. 14th-16th and a full touring show follows in 2009 - dates / venues TBA