Guy Lochhead, 29/10/11
A collection of near-lifesized painted concrete animals, statues and other ephemera created in the ’60s and ’70s in a back garden in Northumberland that was once a quite-popular tourist attraction with its own tearoom. The project was started by James Beveridge in 1962 to designs by retired joiner John Fairnington to amuse his disabled son, Edwin. It is now only half open, the paint has faded and no one really knows about it. “Visionary environments” are often pretty cool, and I like the modest scale and story of this one. It would be nice to set a scene here. I think the broken sculptures and chipped paint make the sculptures more interesting and poignant – the transient nature of art, futility of creation, inevitability of decay etc. etc. etc..