Yorkshire Sculpture Park new exhibition featuring Laura Ellen Bacon

Opening in time for the Easter holidays at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Into Being is a new exhibition by Derbyshire-based artist Laura Ellen Bacon. Designed for the 18th-century Chapel in the grounds of YSP, this new sculpture is woven in sustainable Somerset willow and responds to the building’s architecture, with its dense and abstract form growing within and around the features of the space.

Seeming to take hold of the room, Into Being encroaches six metres into the nave of the Chapel and climbs three metres up the wall. It embodies forms found in the natural world such as cocoons, burrows and seed pods, and visitors can stand within its embracing folds surrounded by the intricate and powerful details of the structure.

Bacon primarily works alone and is constructing the sculpture from scratch at YSP over eight weeks, using willow to “draw” into the surrounding space. She is using branches from fallen beech trees at YSP to form part of the skeleton of the self-supporting structure that, through its material and form, conjures up a primal instinct to nest and reconnect with the natural world.

The ancient technique of willow weaving can be traced back 10,000 years, and today Bacon employs a non-traditional style of working that she has developed over 20 years to create contemporary, abstract installations. She becomes absorbed in the making process, leaving traces of memory and experience within the work, held within the interwoven and knotted rods. For Bacon, the act of making is a contemplative process, with its repetitive and physical nature providing a welcome sanctuary. Her works celebrate the joy of manipulating raw materials by hand, without the need for complex machinery or large teams of people.

For this YSP display, Bacon will use around 80 bundles of Somerset willow called Dicky Meadows, chosen for its particularly slender and straight stem, which helps her ‘draw’ strong and smooth lines in the space. Native to the UK, willow is a sustainable material that exists in harmony with the natural world. At the end of the exhibition, the sculpture will be dismantled and the material reused in the landscape to create wildlife habitats. Alongside her strong affiliation with organic growth, Bacon is also inspired by her father’s architectural drawings, introducing the energy and unpredictability of natural environments into interior spaces with careful consideration.

Bacon explained: “Making it on site was a dream. I was able to work with the rising and falling light in the space, both of which inform the flow of the inner folds of weave. Also, I could witness the acoustics of the space change when I’m deep in the woven willow folds.

She added: “It will be a sensory experience in that there is so much willow, and it has a beautiful aroma and the light from the Chapel windows will affect and change the work throughout the day. The sculpture itself is big! I think that visitors will be able to explore the many varied views of it in the space as it folds, pools and curls its way across the stone floor.”

The show’s title refers to the intense and durational process of bringing a new work into existence. Responding to the specific space, Bacon imagines the shape a new work could take and creates preliminary sketches, but the precise form evolves organically and instinctively as it is made. More so than in her previous works, Into Being suggests a connection to a living thing – a being. The commanding presence and strange but familiar contours of Into Being, along with its subtle aroma will create a stunning and compelling sensory experience.

Shown alongside the new commission will be smaller works in the vestry and on the balcony, including a wall-based sculpture Contact (2021), made from stripped willow, and the floor-based Companion (2024).

Bacon has exhibited widely in Europe and created many significant installations, including at Chatsworth, The Holburne Museum, University of Warwick, Château-Gaillard and Maubuisson Abbey in France. 2024 saw her first US exhibit at Denver Art Museum, Colorado, and this year Bacon will also exhibit at The Clark Institute in Massachusetts.

The exhibition supported by Hignell Gallery.