Ivan Morison began planting a crop on neglected land without knowing what it would become. On Friday, its harvest comes to life as the Dreamers – part of Lightpool’s 10th anniversary celebrations.
Some of the best conversations Ivan Morison has had in Blackpool have taken place at the top of a ladder, stacking hay that smelled terrible.
“They’re beautiful conversations that I don’t know how else to have,” he says, “about place and about people’s lives.”
Morison is speaking while he works on the sculptures that will take over a Mereside meadow this week. He’s works closely with Heather Peak – the artist behind the Field of Dreams, a LeftCoast project that has turned an overlooked piece of land into a wildflower meadow, a wildlife habitat and, now, the raw material for Morison’s sculptures. On Friday evening the meadow hosts Welcoming Winter, part of Lightpool’s 10th anniversary celebrations, when a family of three-metre-tall creatures built from the field’s own hay will be revealed and illuminated in unexpected ways.
Morison works mainly in public spaces around the UK, across Northern Europe and beyond, often on large or long-term projects with local communities. When he first visited Blackpool, the site was an old recreation ground that had “fallen into neglect” and there was no plan for what would be made there.
“It was difficult to know what that would be at the outset,” he says. “There was quite a long research process.” Conversations turned to Blackpool’s links with rural and agricultural life, and to the town’s growing projects.
Then came the decision that shaped the project.
“I think artists sometimes have the ability to recognise that the way to solve a problem is simply to begin,” Morison says. “With the right organisations, commissioners and supporters, there is enough creative bravery to begin without knowing what the final answer is. So, we just planted a crop.”
The crop was chosen with care. It had to restore soil that had been unused for years, so whatever grows next has “a good place to start from”. It had to bring beauty to the site and it had to yield fibrous material that could be built with. Morison has worked with agricultural and natural materials before, but never grown a crop from nothing.
“For me, that felt like a really beautiful place to begin.”
What grew, he says, was “a really beautiful field”, and it was just as striking to watch people return to it. LeftCoast’s programming of the summer drew in activities for a space that had previously been “overlooked or unseen”.
“There wasn’t any intention at the beginning that this would be the outcome,” Morison says, explaining that the sculptures were never the plan. “Equally, this isn’t really an outcome either. It’s just a moment within a much longer-term process.”
He came to the project already knowing the town, having visited on family holidays as a child. But his approach is to make work that connects him to the place in a new light.
“Planting this crop and making these sculptures – that’s my way of connecting to people,” he says. “The building of this has involved many, many people, and through the time of building it I get to know those people. I get to know Blackpool in a really different way.”
The creatures are called the Dreamers, after the field they grew from. Morison is keeping details back, but he promises something strange and unexpected. The evening is meant to feel like more than an unveiling.
“We wanted to create an event that was almost like a myth-making moment – something that felt ritualistic, perhaps something that sets in people’s minds a different kind of feeling about where they might have come from and where they’re going,” he says. “We wanted something that felt seasonal and ancient as well. There will be some rituals, some lights and some chanting. I think it should be a very beautiful event.”
Light will be provided by the artists AndNow, whose work has featured at Blenheim Palace and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Once the evening is over, the Dreamers will stay put, overwintering in the field and slowly returning their nourishment to the soil.
Welcoming Winter is at the Field of Dreams, Mereside (opposite the Boys and Girls Club on the old playing fields, Bowness Avenue, FY4 4TE). Friday 23 October, 6.30pm–8pm. Welcoming Winter (artist film) is at the Studio at North Pier, Blackpool. 26–31 October, 6pm–9pm. Both events are free. Find out what else is happening at Lightpool here. Photos by Garry Cook and Donna Hannigan.
