The Sculpture Trail opened on Weds 19th July and is open every Weds to Sunday till 3rd September. You can book on-line or just turn up on the day. More info on their website https://raveninghamsculpturetrail.com
We were given the subject “Amplify the Positive” for the Trail by the Curator Sarah Cannell. I started with the Classical Greek/Roman image of the Cornucopia or Horn of Plenty, then discovered its precursor, the Cauldron of Plenty, a sacred object found in temples dating back to the Bronze Age in northern Europe. In my piece I have filled an old iron cooking pot with apples and placed it under an apple tree, which has a good crop of fruit.
The tree is also home to three bass reliefs of the Matronae, fertility goddesses, who I first discovered last year when researching the ancient northern European triple goddess.
The original Matronae appear carved on square stones in bass relief. They wear contemporary clothing and carry bowls of fruit, eggs and cakes, loaves of bread, cornucopiae and babies. They were found in garrison towns in the north western Roman Empire, in Britain, France and Germany, and were believed to provide abundance, prosperity, nourishment, healing and immortality.
All my pieces are made in Jesmonite and are for sale as limited editions.
My installation follows a circular train of thought. The Cauldron of Plenty was a sacred object found in temples as early as the Bronze Age in northern Europe and features in Irish and Welsh mythology as a never ending source of nourishment. It isn’t known what if anything was placed inside the Cauldron but I have filled mine with apples – also sacred and magical fruit – which were believed to confer immortality.
Images of the Matronae, a triple form of the fertility goddess, have been found carved onto small stone tablets in Gaul (France), the Rhineland and Britain. Dating from the 1st to 4th Century AD they have been found in Roman garrison towns, such as Lincoln, and on Hadrian’s Wall. They were probably made by and for local people. The irony of images of generous and fertile women being placed in military sites is fascinating. Were they part of a magical act to avert or balance the horrors of war? Very little is known about them, apart from the fact that the triple goddess was significant in northern European culture before the era of the Roman Empire, representing the Crone, the Mother and the Maiden. The German, Gaulish and British versions of the Matronae wear markedly different contemporary clothing, the Germans wearing big circular hats, the Gaulish, long classical robes, and on one British version they wear short skirts over trousers and little hats or different hairstyles, which is why I decided to dress my Matronae as 21st century women.