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Keith Harrison awarded Jerwood Open Forest Commission

Wednesday, 30 November, 2016

Senior Ceramics Lecturer Keith Harrison has just been awarded the Jerwood Open Forest Commission of £30,000 to create his proposed work Joyride, in Cannock Chase Forest.

First launched in 2013 and now in its second edition, Jerwood Open Forest is a collaboration between Jerwood Charitable Foundation and Forestry Commission England with the support of Arts Council England.

Keith’s was one of five projects selected from nearly 500 responses, for a six-month research and development period. He and the other selected artists each received a £2,000 research and development fee and support from Jerwood Visual Arts and Forestry Commission England to expand on their proposal and explore potential sites.

Their developed concepts are currently on exhibition in the second Jerwood Open Forest exhibition (2 November – 11 December 2016).

Joyride is a performative sculpture, will be realised at Cannock Chase Forest in Autumn 2017, where he will be ceremonially release a clay replica of a Rover 75 down a specially constructed roller coaster style ramp, providing a pertinent commentary on the rise and fall of car manufacturing in the area.

Inspired by his upbringing in the heavily post-industrialised Black Country, Joyride will bring together industrial and recreational forces within the forest, aligning the urban and natural environment on a monumental scale. Both relevant and reminiscent, the work frames the rich and historical relationship between car and landscape in a contemporary context, through which it has the potential to resonate and engage with an extremely diverse audience.


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Keith Harrison