ARK

Inspired by its watery position and the riverside and woodland approach walks, ARK transformed the Hebden Bridge Bowling Club Pavilion into an exploration of the idea and meaning of an ark, referencing not only the story of Noah’s boat, but also ‘ark’ as a place of refuge, and as a chest or repository. – here containing precious fragments of the natural world all gathered from the nearby landscape.

ARK told the imagined story of Alfred Walker (1932 – 2021) :

Alfred “Noah” Walker (1934 -2021) used to say we should all build our homes in wood, on stilts, so they’d float when the deluge came. He had always believed that in his lifetime the local landscape would be consumed by flood. Hence his nickname.

He was a local man. In his youth he had played bowls and been a keen amateur cricketer but as he grew older he became a recluse. He had a little hut beyond the archery field by Hebden Water, but no one knew what he was doing in there. He was sometimes seen walking the stretch of river between the old bridge and the bowling club, gathering tiny specimens – soil, stones, leaves, twigs. If anyone asked him what he was doing he would say he was saving them, making sure to keep some precious little pieces of the natural world that were, he believed, usually taken for granted and may one day soon be swept away.

During Covid lockdowns, no-one gave much thought to Alfred and during that winter he fell ill and died at home, alone. But, unbeknownst to anyone, he had been spending his days in the Bowling Club pavilion, refashioning the building into his Ark. In it he had begun to create a ‘cask’ of treasured fragments from the natural world, an archive of nature, catalogue of objects, writings and memories from this tiny stretch of river….

Created by Wilson/Pike (writer/artist duo Amandas Dalton and Stoodley) and members of the public.