Seeing the wood for the trees

The most recent addition to Sculpture in Woodland at the Devil's Glen is also the first artwork you encounter as you turn off the road into the forest. The sleek wooden forms of Michael Warren's Antaeus flank the entrance like guardians. Though they soar upwards they are firmly rooted in the earth, thickening towards their bases like the two sides of an inverted arch. The title refers us to the Greek myth of the giant Antaeus, the son of Gaia and Poseidon, who remained invincible so long as he was in touch with the earth. Hercules killed him by holding him aloft and crushing the life out of him.

Not that Antaeus was all sweetness and light - he employed himself in building a temple from the skulls of hapless travellers. But in this context we can presume that he symbolises the importance of our own bond with the earth, a bond that is threatened, if not already irrevocably broken, by the various Herculean forces of greed, consumerism, technological progress, urbanisation, consumerism and simple indifference.

Part of the rationale behind Sculpture in Woodland is to foster environmental awareness, though the term is perhaps too vague and ambiguous. When forestry communications consultant Donal Magner conceived the project originally, he specifically had in mind what he terms "wood culture." That is, an awareness of woodland and of wood itself as a functional and artistic medium, something he saw as lacking on a national level. It must be said, though, that there is also, just under the surface, an incredible interest in, and fondness and respect for woodland. The success of last Sunday's Open Day at the Devil's Glen, under the auspices of National Tree Week, is just one indicator of that.

Sculpture in Woodland was born as far back as 1994. Since then seven artists, from Ireland and abroad, have completed ambitious wood sculptures in Coillte's forest at the Glen. 1996 saw a concentrated burst of activity with an extraordinarily industrious two-week sculpture symposium on site. Overseen by a committee of individuals with either arts or forestry backgrounds, the project involves the co-operation of Coillte itself, Wicklow County Council and the Arts Council. Now it also has the benefit of a part-time administrator, Ciara King. This year, she says, they hope to complete two more pieces.

Last year, Michael Warren was there by invitation. This time around the intention is to canvas for submissions from artists, through advertisements in various specialist publications like Circa and the AAI and SSI Newsletters. Sensitive selection is vital. The creation of what is effectively a sculpture trail in a spectacular natural setting is obviously fraught with difficulties. So far, the committee has been exceptionally lucky, or perceptive, or both, in its choice of artists.

The Glen is itself something of a sculptural feat, a high-walled gash cut through stone uplands by glacial meltwater. Now the Vartry River flows briskly along the floor of the narrow defile, plunging, at the western extremity, over a picturesque waterfall into the Devil's Punchbowl. Seen from the south, birches cling precariously to the Glen's vertiginous northern wall. There are generous quantities of several other deciduous species, and masses of invasive laurel, but this is a forestry plantation, and that ubiquitous forestry staple, Sitka spruce, is also much in evidence. So far the sculptors have selected their own sites, and most of the work is readily accessible and close to the car park. In fact Jacques Bosser's Chago looms rather ominously over the car park, a wood cylinder, its surface charred black - the title, Donal Magner explains, refers to an African Fire God - metal spikes hammered into its surface in emulation of the sinister, nail-studded fetishes employed in some tribal cultures, not as art but as practical magic.

Not far away, among the trees, Derek Whitticase's Pound is a more benign presence, and a superb piece of work. It takes the form of 16 tapering, banded wooden clubs. The title refers to the idea of enclosure, and also to monetary value, but the attractive wooden shapes resemble pestles and also suggest the activity of pounding and grinding.

If you follow the winding forest paths you will encounter Canadian artist Kat O'Brien's Seven Shrines, simple wooden structures sheltering suspended sections of wood recovered, with one exception, from the forest floor. The exception is a piece of sugar maple she brought with her from Canada. These jagged bits of limbs and trunks disconcertingly resemble human limbs and trunks, and it can be quite eerie to come upon them in the gloom of the undergrowth. The shrines are her personal tribute to the seven generations of women born since the Great Famine, and perhaps to seven generations lost to Ireland. Her own family, on both sides, stems from Famine emigrants.

Naomi Seki's kinetic, hard-edged piece is like a stop-frame sequence of falling blades, expressive, she intends, of the precarious, dynamic balance of things. There's dynamism as well in Jorge du Bon's cantilevered, telescopic construction which is, remarkably, all cut by chainsaw from one hollowed- out trunk of Douglas fir. Inspired by beautifully built European firewood stacks, Maurice MacDonagh's imposing, squat cylindrical block of Sitka spruce trunks is scorched black and coated with linseed oil - a traditional recipe for preservation.

On one level, the appeal of the site for artists is obvious. But then again, the reality of such large-scale outdoor projects is that they usually entail an enormous amount of hard work for a very modest financial return. Sculpture is a labour-intensive business. As Ciara King sees it: "It's inviting for artists because they have free rein. I don't mean there are absolutely no constraints. Obviously there are. But in the end it is a chance to work on a large scale quite outside the conventions of the gallery set-up. There are very few other places where you can do that." Besides which, as Jorge de Bon observed when, chainsaw in hand, he was making his piece back in 1996: "You know you're not being exploited. Your work will not be sold, it's something for the community, not for the art business."

Sculpture in Woodland is in Coillte's forest at the Devil's Glen, Co Wicklow. The entrance to the forest is roughly two-and-a-half miles inland from Ashford on the road to Annamoe (the R763).