IMG 7011-001-Picnic Grove 1

Cass Sculpture Foundation, Goodwood, West Sussex.

The immersive sculptural installations by David Brooks explore different perceptions and interactions with nature. As part of the Cass Sculpture Foundation’s Fields Programme, Brooks created Picnic Grove, a sprawling work built out of custom-made outdoor wooden furniture and spread over the entire 18,000m of the Deer Hut Field. The dozens of picnic tables and garden chairs are constructed in an interlocking manner, with trees heedlessly growing through the furniture like opportunistic weeds. As the picnic tables traverse the field and impose themselves on the landscape, the trees perforate the structures like a verdant grove, creating ambiguity as to which is dominant; manmade constructions or nature. This is typical of David Brooks sculptural oeuvre in which he creates experimental platforms for nature and man to play out against one another. While visitors are encouraged to utilise the installation for communal enjoyment, they will also find themselves negotiating the playful interruptions created by the erratic placement of the trees, fostering a similar sense of ambiguity as to who is imposing on whom.