In the heart of the diminutive village of New Luce two rivers meet. For artists Matt Baker and his assistant Jo Warner this conjunction of the Water of Luce and the Cross Water became the focus for an innovative interpretation of what a village is.

In 2007 a small group of local people, led by farmer???s wife Una Forster, generated the ambition to create a contemporary art project about and with their village. Having secured funding from the nearby windfarm, they approached the Public Art team at Dumfries & Galloway Arts (dgArts), who helped them to create a brief and appoint nationally renowned sculptor Matt Baker as their artist. Matt???s brief for the project was to engage local people in a conversation about New Luce and, from this, develop proposals for an artwork unique to the village. So began an 18 month adventure for all concerned. The Public Arts team at dgArts advised Una on consultation process and worked with Matt to ensure creative excellence and the presence of a strong sense of place in the artworks.

Even by Galloway standards New Luce is remote. It???s on the road to nowhere in particular. However, that doesn???t stop it being a local and particular place in its own right: Matt???s artworks were developed throughout in close collaboration with the people who live there.

Matt Baker said: The artwork for New Luce comprises four individual sculptural installations that read together as one overall work. The overarching theme behind the work is a meditation on the idea of this village ??? why it is here, the processes it has undergone and the way that it faces the future.

The artwork process began initially with a six months of research in the village ??? this resulted in a film and a conceptual idea for a series of permanent sculptural installations.

The Luce Water and the Cross Water formed the structure for the art project, with two of the works beside the rivers outwith the village, and one on each of the two bridges right at its heart. This idea of a ‘necessary centre’ symbolised by the meeting of two rivers is one theme.

The outer works are the Trysts ??? these make secretive new meeting places and record the names of 5 of the features that each river has passed on its journey through the landscape to the village.

The inner works are distillations of the themes and forms of the Trysts ??? these are the Seeds. Each seed comprises a cast bronze form that is held above the river by an oak structure and a bronze chain. The two Seed forms are conceived as two halves of a single whole. The viewer is invited to speculate that should the Seeds ever be released into the water they might be rejoined together in the Turn Wiel, the swirling salmon pool that exists where the Cross water and the main Water of Luce merge.

Matt added: New Luce is remarkable for the way that natural processes, such as lichen, moss growth and oxidation continue in the landscape mostly undisturbed – to the effect that you find extraordinary things like a beech tree grown right around a discarded cast iron fire surround. This became our second theme – using materials that would quickly react and change in response to each other and the weather. The form of the Seeds reference traditional and modern agriculture and the materials have been selected for their active weathering properties and their reactivity with each other.

The New Luce project was launched on 25 September 2010, with over 100 people (there are only 62 houses in the village) packed into the Village Hall. They listened to music from the New Luce Fiddle Crew and Alex Fergusson MSP declared the project officially open. People set out to walk around the artworks and listen to live music played beside the Trysts. Poet Mary Smith read her work in the Kenmuir Arms.

For more information, please contact Jean Atkin at jean@dgarts.co.uk

NOTE: Matt Baker contributed to PAR+RS with Starting At The Beginning, click here to read it.