Ghost Bird
Ghost Bird is a silent walking performance and live-art installation created for the Langden Valley in the Trough of Bowland, Lancashire, an upland landscape internationally important for its heather moorland, blanket bog and rare birds. Referring to the ghostly grey feathers of the increasingly persecuted male hen harrier, the work reflects on absence, loss and persecution, drawing connections with the journey made over the Bowland Fells to Lancaster Castle by the Pendle Witches over 400 years earlier. Through walking, performance and landscape, Ghost Bird explores the relationship between ecology, history and memory.
Participants walked up the valley, onto the moorland and gradually into silence, following a signposted route that marked place names in the landscape alongside the changing history of the hen harrier in the Trough of Bowland, from the sixteenth century to the present day.
En-route to the uplands participants entered Langden Castle shooting barn, the floor of which was covered in a deep layer of peat from which emerged Lisa Whistlecroft’s watery, womby sound-scape and in which Julia Griffin, 8 1/2 months pregnant, danced a non-stop solo for five hours – her movement, choreographed by Nigel Stewart, derived from studies of the river that ran off the moorland and past the barn which the expert eyes of geologist Mike Kelly helped us to ‘see’. A peat fire burned in the hearth and in a shadowy corner ten garments, lit by candles, hung on coat hooks. The floors of the two adjoining rooms were covered too: one with translucent-white eggs and the other in a snowy carpet of feathers.
Onwards, participants circumnavigated a mound of spent gun cartridges before climbing a rough track. At its summit, a row of feather-like flags came into view, pointing upwards into the vast empty sky. From here, a figure dressed in a ghostly white suit beckoned before directing them into a narrowing valley, where heather-lined shooting butts revealed their strange and unexpected dwellers. Through walking, silence, installation and live performance, Ghost Bird invited participants to experience the Bowland landscape differently, reflecting on ecology, persecution, memory and loss.
wasn't Saturday filled with awe and wonder.
Deeply affecting, moving. Powerful. I cried. Felt elated, ashamed, human.
A beautiful, haunting piece that expressed so much and especially conveyed the fragility of all things. Thank you. A privilege to have experienced in silence and quiet.
Audience Responses, Langden Valley, 2012.
Created, directed and scenography: Louise Ann Wilson
Choreography: Nigel Stewart
Sound design: Lisa Whistlecroft
Performance: Julia Griffin
Film and technical editing: Janan Yakula
Pointing People: Jim Hendley, Lowri Jones, Alastair Walker
Life Models: Carol Ackroyd, Gill Ainsworth, Lucy Archbould, Charlotte Bizsewski, Linda Bradshaw, Michael Bradshaw, Sarah Durham, Robert Ferguson, Karen Forshaw, Susan Hill, Janet House, Rob Hudson, Lisa Hunn, Anne Lees, Dandy Lion, Les Mac, Howard Mansfield, Julie Moosburg, Frances Panchoo, Steve Ritter, Martin Rowe, Yvonne Rowe, Mo Schofield, Neil Schofield, Caf Smith, John Tunney, Nick Verrall, Sheila Winstanley, Richard Worrall and Neil Younghusband.
Production team: Peter Reed (Project Manager); Lowri Jones (Project Assistant); Lesley Chernery, Craig Davidson and Shona Wright (Stage Managers).
Installation assistants: David Honeybone, Carla Monvid and Dorrie Scott.
Front of House: Ele Kinchin-Smith (Coordinator); Dominic Halladay and Derek Tarr (Assistants).
Production photography: Manuel Vason
Co-commissioned by: Green Close, as part of the Lancashire Witches 400 Programme, and Live at LICA.
Supported by: United Utilities and their tenant farmers; the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty; and the RSPB hen harrier team.
Special thanks: Agri-Cycle for the loan of the spent gun cartridges.
The following photographs document Ghost Bird as it unfolded through the Langden Valley. Moving from station-to-station, participants gradually entered a landscape shaped by ecology, history and memory. Along the route they encountered installations, live performance and a sequence of interventions that reflected on the persecution of the hen harrier and the journey of the Pendle Witches across the Bowland Fells.
The following photographs document Ghost Bird as it unfolded through the Langden Valley. Moving from station-to-station, participants gradually entered a landscape shaped by ecology, history and memory. Along the route they encountered installations, live performance and a sequence of interventions that reflected on the persecution of the hen harrier and the journey of the Pendle Witches across the Bowland Fells.
YOU ARE ABOUT TO WALK UP THE LANGDEN VALLEY
THIS JOURNEY HAS HISTORY
THIS VALLEY IS ONE OF THE LAST PLACES IN ENGLAND WHERE THE PERSECUTED HEN HARRIER NESTS
THIS VALLEY FORMS PART OF THE AREA THROUGH WHICH, IN 1612, THE ACCUSED PENDLE WITCHES WERE MARCHED TO LANCASTER CASTLE,
WHERE 10 WERE HANGED
Miry Ellis – 1544: First Printed record of male as native
Stake End – 1700: Widespread Throughout Upland and Lowland Britain
Mere Clough – 1885: Stops Breeding in Lancashire
Higher Dry Clough – 1954: Legally Protected
Birch Bank – 1900s: Wiped out in mainland Britain due to persecution
Black Clough – 1969: 30 Breeding Pairs in Bowland
Lingy Pits – 2012: Bowland Betty Returns – 1 Breeding pair in England top-secret location 4 fledglings
Weasel Clough – 2012: 0 Breeding pairs in Bowland.
Miry Ellis – 1544: First Printed record of male as native
Stake End – 1700: Widespread Throughout Upland and Lowland Britain
Mere Clough – 1885: Stops Breeding in Lancashire
Higher Dry Clough – 1954: Legally Protected
Birch Bank – 1900s: Wiped out in mainland Britain due to persecution
Black Clough – 1969: 30 Breeding Pairs in Bowland
Lingy Pits – 2012: Bowland Betty Returns – 1 Breeding pair in England top-secret location 4 fledglings
Weasel Clough – 2012: 0 Breeding pairs in Bowland.
Production Photographs by Manuel Vason. Copyright Manuel Vason Studios.
Production Photographs by Manuel Vason. Copyright Manuel Vason Studios.
Audience Responses
...thank you for a wonderful day in Bowland yesterday. I can see in my mind's eye, as if a bird [hen harrier], the whole expanse of your installation from the barn by the meandering river to the vivid cartridge heap to the pacifist feathers and on to the sheltering birds in the shooting butts.
It was an inspirational homage to a persecuted species. I really look forward to your next creation.
[…] thank you so much for bringing us Ghost Bird! It was an incredibly memorable, sensuous and moving experience. Our friends, some of whom
are not in the habit of going to site specific performance, were also very impressed and touched by the walk. Everyone said that it definitely altered the way they experienced the landscape.
I thought Ghostbird was wonderful. Your work managed to convey the fragility of existence, conception, fecundity, human/ animal co-existence challenges, nesting, and lots of other thoughts that I’ve not got the right time or brainspace to articulate properly. Matt loved it too. I felt for the life models keenly in that wind which added to the sensation of fragility. I absolutely loved the cottage with the eggs all those shades of white, and feathers, and the white wall and dark peaty corners inside with the steaming ground and pregnant woman truly inhabiting the space. The signage was just right, not too many words and properly evocative rather than telling you in your face! [...].
Just to say thank you for a wonderful day in Bowland yesterday. I can see in my mind's eye, as if a bird (hen harrier?), the whole expanse of your installation from the barn by the meandering river to the vivid cartridge heap to the pacifist feathers and on to the sheltering birds in the shooting butts. It was an inspirational homage to a persecuted species.
Many congratulations on your magnificent Ghost Bird. The whole project was very moving set in that wonderful landscape, and both I and the friend I went with enjoyed it immensely. Thank you. A very beautiful “performance” in a lovely landscape.
I loved the whole experience. The signs were brilliant and I found myself scouring the area for birds and other beautiful things much more than I usually do (ordinarily I’m moving quickly, looking at big picture and then at my feet). The bad weather intensified the experience for me – but I was amongst the lucky ones who were able to see what was happening (though closing down) at the top. I’m
sad I didn’t experience the inside of the castle.
I felt full of energy and happy at the start. As I walked to the barn, the change to whispering made me more contemplative. The “dance” was thought-provoking, warm, cosy, pregnant – all in front of you – plenty to “look forward to.”as I walked into “silence” I felt even more contemplative. The vulnerability of the “actors” in their “nests”, their bravery, their lack of control over their destiny really caught me. I felt angry (and still feel angry) at the Hen Harriers’ plight. A bird imported for shooting...etc. I also felt calm and at one with my surroundings – appreciative and respectful. I am sure this is not the end, more thoughts and feelings will develop and be built upon. Thank you.
3 Mile Walk created sense of anticipations. Installation in barn was totally unexpected and dramatic. The contrast between the landscape, grouse butts and the stark paleness of the human bodies was amazing and thought-provoking. [Nature – semi man-made structures- humanity]. Very pleased to have come.
Thought provoking about the fragility of conservation and species; atmospheric, brave and made links for me to persecution and oppression.
Audience Responses
...thank you for a wonderful day in Bowland yesterday. I can see in my mind's eye, as if a bird [hen harrier], the whole expanse of your installation from the barn by the meandering river to the vivid cartridge heap to the pacifist feathers and on to the sheltering birds in the shooting butts.
It was an inspirational homage to a persecuted species. I really look forward to your next creation.
[…] thank you so much for bringing us Ghost Bird! It was an incredibly memorable, sensuous and moving experience. Our friends, some of whom
are not in the habit of going to site specific performance, were also very impressed and touched by the walk. Everyone said that it definitely altered the way they experienced the landscape.
I thought Ghostbird was wonderful. Your work managed to convey the fragility of existence, conception, fecundity, human/ animal co-existence challenges, nesting, and lots of other thoughts that I’ve not got the right time or brainspace to articulate properly. Matt loved it too. I felt for the life models keenly in that wind which added to the sensation of fragility. I absolutely loved the cottage with the eggs all those shades of white, and feathers, and the white wall and dark peaty corners inside with the steaming ground and pregnant woman truly inhabiting the space. The signage was just right, not too many words and properly evocative rather than telling you in your face! [...].
Just to say thank you for a wonderful day in Bowland yesterday. I can see in my mind's eye, as if a bird (hen harrier?), the whole expanse of your installation from the barn by the meandering river to the vivid cartridge heap to the pacifist feathers and on to the sheltering birds in the shooting butts. It was an inspirational homage to a persecuted species.
Many congratulations on your magnificent Ghost Bird. The whole project was very moving set in that wonderful landscape, and both I and the friend I went with enjoyed it immensely. Thank you. A very beautiful “performance” in a lovely landscape.
I loved the whole experience. The signs were brilliant and I found myself scouring the area for birds and other beautiful things much more than I usually do (ordinarily I’m moving quickly, looking at big picture and then at my feet). The bad weather intensified the experience for me – but I was amongst the lucky ones who were able to see what was happening (though closing down) at the top. I’m
sad I didn’t experience the inside of the castle.
I felt full of energy and happy at the start. As I walked to the barn, the change to whispering made me more contemplative. The “dance” was thought-provoking, warm, cosy, pregnant – all in front of you – plenty to “look forward to.”as I walked into “silence” I felt even more contemplative. The vulnerability of the “actors” in their “nests”, their bravery, their lack of control over their destiny really caught me. I felt angry (and still feel angry) at the Hen Harriers’ plight. A bird imported for shooting...etc. I also felt calm and at one with my surroundings – appreciative and respectful. I am sure this is not the end, more thoughts and feelings will develop and be built upon. Thank you.
3 Mile Walk created sense of anticipations. Installation in barn was totally unexpected and dramatic. The contrast between the landscape, grouse butts and the stark paleness of the human bodies was amazing and thought-provoking. [Nature – semi man-made structures- humanity]. Very pleased to have come.
Thought provoking about the fragility of conservation and species; atmospheric, brave and made links for me to persecution and oppression.
Background
When first approached by Green Close and Live at LICA to propose a project for Lancashire Witches 400, I knew I wanted to avoid the clichés surrounding the Pendle Witches and instead create a work that considered the fragility and vulnerability of the accused, alongside the harshly beautiful landscape of which they were part.
As a maker of site-specific walking performances that often take audiences off the beaten track, my thoughts quickly turned to the Bowland Fells, across which the twelve men and women from Pendle were marched in 1612 to Lancaster Castle to await trial for witchcraft. I became interested in how these people were hunted down through fear, prejudice, ignorance and the pursuit of power.
While researching the traditions of hunting in the Trough of Bowland, I became aware of the hen harrier – a beautiful bird driven close to extinction through fear, prejudice, ignorance and the pursuit of grouse. I began to wonder whether the hen harrier, and its plight, might become a metaphor for the accused.
It was the breeding season in 2011 when Jude Laine from the RSPB took me onto the moorland above Langden Valley, which had been the English stronghold for hen harriers for almost fifty years. We sat silently for a long time, watching for sky-dancing hen harriers – the ghostly grey-feathered males that perform spectacular rises, swoops, twists and dives to attract a mate – but our waiting was in vain. No birds appeared.
Instead, I became aware that we were sitting between two rows of shooting butts, camouflaged amongst the heather. There were twenty in total, numbered in white paint from one to ten. Ten of the twelve people taken to Lancaster Castle were eventually hanged. At that moment my thoughts crystallised. I knew I had found both the site and the central elements for Ghost Bird:
the absent hen harrier; empty nests and no eggs; heather, peat and bog; feathers; shooting butts with curved dry-stone walls; discarded gun cartridges and champagne corks; tough, tiring terrain; silent walking, watching and waiting; and a massive sky filled with cloud, wind and rain.
An abiding image came to me: a human figure curled into a foetal, egg-like form inside a shooting butt — partly sheltered yet profoundly vulnerable, naked skin, veins and muscle exposed, reminiscent of a Lucian Freud painting.
A short film created by the RSPB to promote its Skydancer hen harrier conservation project, which briefly features the Ghost Bird exhibition at RSPB Geltsdale, can be here.
When first approached by Green Close and Live at LICA to propose a project for Lancashire Witches 400, I knew I wanted to avoid the clichés surrounding the Pendle Witches and instead create a work that considered the fragility and vulnerability of the accused, alongside the harshly beautiful landscape of which they were part.
As a maker of site-specific walking performances that often take audiences off the beaten track, my thoughts quickly turned to the Bowland Fells, across which the twelve men and women from Pendle were marched in 1612 to Lancaster Castle to await trial for witchcraft. I became interested in how these people were hunted down through fear, prejudice, ignorance and the pursuit of power.
While researching the traditions of hunting in the Trough of Bowland, I became aware of the hen harrier – a beautiful bird driven close to extinction through fear, prejudice, ignorance and the pursuit of grouse. I began to wonder whether the hen harrier, and its plight, might become a metaphor for the accused.
It was the breeding season in 2011 when Jude Laine from the RSPB took me onto the moorland above Langden Valley, which had been the English stronghold for hen harriers for almost fifty years. We sat silently for a long time, watching for sky-dancing hen harriers – the ghostly grey-feathered males that perform spectacular rises, swoops, twists and dives to attract a mate – but our waiting was in vain. No birds appeared.
Instead, I became aware that we were sitting between two rows of shooting butts, camouflaged amongst the heather. There were twenty in total, numbered in white paint from one to ten. Ten of the twelve people taken to Lancaster Castle were eventually hanged. At that moment my thoughts crystallised. I knew I had found both the site and the central elements for Ghost Bird:
the absent hen harrier; empty nests and no eggs; heather, peat and bog; feathers; shooting butts with curved dry-stone walls; discarded gun cartridges and champagne corks; tough, tiring terrain; silent walking, watching and waiting; and a massive sky filled with cloud, wind and rain.
An abiding image came to me: a human figure curled into a foetal, egg-like form inside a shooting butt — partly sheltered yet profoundly vulnerable, naked skin, veins and muscle exposed, reminiscent of a Lucian Freud painting.
A short film created by the RSPB to promote its Skydancer hen harrier conservation project, which briefly features the Ghost Bird exhibition at RSPB Geltsdale, can be here.
Exhibitions
Transformed Double Bill Exhibition
17 October – 7 December 2013
Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University
Production photographs by Manuel Vason and installation elements from the original 2012 production of
Ghost Bird were exhibited at the Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University, as part of the Transformed Double Bill exhibition.
Transformed Double Bill Exhibition
17 October – 7 December 2013
Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University
Production photographs by Manuel Vason and installation elements from the original 2012 production of
Ghost Bird were exhibited at the Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University, as part of the Transformed Double Bill exhibition.
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RSPB Gallery Exhibition
January – April 2014
RSPB Geltsdale, Cumbria
Ghost Bird was exhibited at the RSPB Gallery, Geltsdale, bringing together production
photographs by Manuel Vason alongside installation elements from the original performance.
The exhibition formed part of the RSPB's ongoing work to raise awareness of hen harrier conservation.
RSPB Gallery Exhibition
January – April 2014
RSPB Geltsdale, Cumbria
Ghost Bird was exhibited at the RSPB Gallery, Geltsdale, bringing together production
photographs by Manuel Vason alongside installation elements from the original performance.
The exhibition formed part of the RSPB's ongoing work to raise awareness of hen harrier conservation.
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Make/Believe: Design for Performance
14–31 January 2015
Newton Building, Nottingham Trent University
Production photographs from Ghost Bird were exhibited in the Society of British Theatre Designers' national exhibition
Make/Believe: Design for Performance at Nottingham Trent University.
Make/Believe: Design for Performance
14–31 January 2015
Newton Building, Nottingham Trent University
Production photographs from Ghost Bird were exhibited in the Society of British Theatre Designers' national exhibition
Make/Believe: Design for Performance at Nottingham Trent University.
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