Launches Saturday 27 September and Sunday 28 September 2008, at Strid Wood, Bolton Abbey Estate, North Yorkshire.

Over eighty of David Morley’s new “slow poems” will be exhibited as public art in the woodland.

Over the summer, David Morley has been working on a large-scale commission from Chrysalis Arts to write and then artistically realise a series of ecological ‘slow poems’. Working in the spirit of Ian Hamilton Finlay, the poems were written in the wood or by the River Wharfe as its moves through the woods, and the pieces are realised as visual art using natural and non-toxic materials. Over eighty of these poems will be “published” in a woodland in North Yorkshire and remain there until they decompose, or are picked apart as nesting material by birds. This project picks up on pilot work that Professor Morley, a National Teaching Fellow, carried out with his students at Warwick University at the Capital Centre in 2007-08.

Davd Morley’s poetry series is part of a new Slow Art Trail, one of the aims of which is to raise awareness of environmental issues and to explore how artists can develop a more sustainable approach to their creative practice. The project connects with the slow food concept of taking more time to appreciate quality, sourcing materials locally and highlighting issues such as re-using and recycling, sustainable transport and responsible travel. Other artworks in Strid Wood include sculptures by upcoming and established Brit Art members such as Steve Gumbley, Laura Ellen Bacon, Johnny White, Jane Revitt and Andy Plant.

The Slow Art Trail begins at Skipton Auction Mart where a special free bus will travel to the Strid Wood Exhibition Centre, Bolton Abbey. Here the route continues on foot through the woods via the Cumberland Trail. The bus will depart from Skipton Auction Mart every 30 minutes from 10.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. on the hour, and return on the half hour from the Strid Wood Exhibition Centre from 10.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.