Walking the sculptor’s landscape

We stood on the neatly mown grass waiting for a giant metallic seed pod to open. Slowly, to the sound of running water, the silver outer case parted to reveal a spherical golden seed within. Then the process reversed and the seed was again hidden by its casing.

This was Revelation, a remarkable water-powered sculpture by Angela Connor, now installed at the Canwood Gallery in rural Herefordshire. We had seen Revelation before, but no two visits to Canwood and its meadows of modern sculptures are ever the same.

The last time we came, the sun was high and the wildflowers were in full bloom — setting the artworks against a bright tapestry. This time we were earlier in the year and in the day. The low sun glinted on Revelation’s metallic structure and the ripples from the pool in which the sculpture sits were reflected on its sides.

Sculptor Barbara Hepworth talked about the landscape of sculpture as ‘one of ever-changing space and light where forms reveal themselves in new aspects as the sun rises and sets, and the moon comes up’. This, she said, was ‘a world of infinite subtle meaning’. To visit Canwood is to explore this world.