Back just in time for summer...
Newby Hall: The Antiques Roadshow team will arrive at the North Yorkshire property next month, although things will be a little different, with filming set to take place behind closed doors. There is, however, much for visitors to see. Newby’s grounds, including its impressive new rock garden and a miniature railway, are currently open to visitors, along with the cafe. It is hoped the Hall, which houses the famous sculpture gallery, will reopen later in the year. Open Wednesday to Sunday, 11am to 5.30pm (last admission 5pm). 01423 322583, newbyhall.com
provoke a reaction is Discharge. It’s a slightly grim title for a beautiful cascade of pigeon feathers which appear to burst out from historic bookshelves in the Main Library. From a distance, it looks like it might have been made from silk, but close up the 10,000 pigeon feathers – some complete with telephone numbers written on by their fanciers just in case their birds go awol during a race – are unmistakable.
“When I was originally looking around the house I thought they’d never let me install anything in that room so I didn’t even suggest it,” says Kate. “It was the team at Harewood who said, ‘What do you think about putting it here?’ and I have to say it looks amazing.
“That piece has previously been displayed in a white cube gallery; it has been exhibited in an old tobacco factory and wherever it has been it seems to take on a new character. Here it seems to represent knowledge tumbling from the shelves and I like that.”
Kate and her assistants began installing the exhibition, which was originally due to open at Easter, in March just as the world outside was gradually shutting down.
“It was very surreal,” she adds. “For a week it was like we were self-isolating in a Jane Austen novel. Every so often we would put the news on and hear what was happening in the outside world. We’d be ordering from online shops for when we were back home, but then we would look out of the window and it was hard to imagine that anything was wrong.”
Designed to tie in with the 50th anniversary of Harewood’s Bird Garden, the exhibition also features a new piece of work created by Kate. Cavort – a rug made of pheasant feathers – was inspired by the ceiling of the Yellow Drawing Room in which it now sits and was created with the help of the estate’s volunteers.
“I haven’t worked with volunteers in this way before, but I definitely will do again. They sorted and trimmed hundreds of feathers, which is not as easy as it sounds. It wasn’t just about size, it was about ordering the feathers by colour and pattern and I think when I first talked to them they thought I was a little mad,” adds Kate.
“However, it worked better than I could ever have imagined and a number of people have already said how well it fits alongside the antique furniture, which is great. I want people to do a double take, to think perhaps it’s one thing and then realise it’s another.”
Growing up on a Norfolk boatyard, Kate spent her childhood surrounded by nature, but it was only later in life that she was able to indulge her passion for sculpture. Since graduating from the Royal College of Art at the age of 40, she has worked full time as an artist and throughout lockdown was able to catch up with a number of private commissions.
“I have been very lucky, but I have also worked hard,” she says. “When Charles Saatchi bought one of my degree show pieces, I thought, ‘That’s it, I’ve made it’, but then of course nothing happened, which was a really sobering experience.
“I always tell students to keep making work, keep entering for awards, because if you allow yourself to be put off by one rejection you can easily become trapped in despondency.”
With Menagerie, An Experience now open to the public, Kate is hoping to return to Yorkshire to see the exhibition and she would quite like to bring along a few friends. “I’d really like to contact the region’s pigeon fanciers and get them to come down to see it,” she says. “Their world doesn’t often collide with somewhere like Harewood, but I would love them to see how perfect those discarded feathers work against a backdrop like that.”
Harewood House gardens are open daily from 10am to 6pm and the house is open from 11am to 5pm. From August 4 to 17, the estate will also be hosting Luna Drive-In Cinema and throughout the summer there will be a programme of guided tours including afternoon tea. harewood.org