LET internationally renowned artist and designer Es Devlin introduce Library of the Four Winds, her new public sculptural installation, on show in and around the Temple of the Four Winds at Castle Howard until September 27 as part of visionary architect Sir John Vanbrugh’s tercentenary celebrations.
“It’s a very special privilege to be invited to make a new work within Vanbrugh’s exquisite Temple of the Four Winds,” she says. “The Library of the Four Winds is a luminous oval revolving bookshelf, made up of hundreds of books, reflected to double height through a mirrored base.”
Devlin’s voice can be heard in a soundscape inside and outside. “The sculpture reads aloud from 250 of the books that have most influenced me. It draws on Vanbrugh’s dedication to literature, architecture and political activism within his final architectural masterpiece,” she says.
Four curved tables and concentric benches form a circle around the pavilion in an open invitation to visitors to connect with another. “Each table is laid with a selection of my annotated books, and we invite visitors to sit and read and meet one another through the texts throughout the summer of this National Year of Reading,” says Es “We are also offering drawing workshops each Saturday [from midday], where people can encounter one another through portraiture.”
Hailed as “the Shakespeare of English architecture”, Vanbrugh had concurrent careers as self-trained architect, playwright, adventurer, soldier, spy, diplomat and garden designer. “It could only be charm,” says Nicholas Howard, when speculating why Vanbrugh received the Castle Howard commission from Charles Howard, the 3rd Earl of Carlisle, after meeting him in the confines of the Kit-Cat Club in London. “I can’t find any other explanation.”
To mark the 300th anniversary of Vanbrugh’s death, Castle Howard is celebrating his legacy with exhibitions, installations, workshops, talks and performances throughout the year.
Nicholas and Victoria Howard say:“It was Vanbrugh’s vision that brought Castle Howard to life, and now the house has the honour of celebrating its creator. There are many ways that audiences can engage with and learn about this larger-than-life character this year, and we are delighted to present this response by Es Devlin, which allows her to explore her own affinity to Vanbrugh. Her work is an innovative response to Vanbrugh’s vision and continues Castle Howard’s work with contemporary artists.”
Library of the Four Winds takes up summertime residency in the temple used originally as a place for refreshment and reading: Devlin’s starting point for creating the new artwork in an aesthetic space whose exact purpose was never specified formally.
There was even more of a buzz surrounding the installation at the press launch, on account of a swarm of bees in search of the queen bee concentrating their energies on the rear of the temple.
“What a magical place Castle Howard is,” Es enthuses, drawn to Vanbrugh’s “flamboyant Baroque architecture”, his concern for systems in houses and architecture, his fascination with geometry. “The place is humming with it. What he found in nature was mathematics.”
In turn, mechanics come into the design of Es’s installation, built by Stage One Creative Services, a North Yorkshire manufacturing and engineering company that specialises in bespoke fabrications for the creative industries, based at Marston Business Park, Tockwith.
Central to the impact of the Library of the Four Winds on the Temple of the Four Winds itself is the mirrored base. “The temple invites you to look around you, 360 degrees, and to look up, almost putting a joke, a little riddle at the top where there are two gargoyles. The only way you are not invited to look is down, but this mirror, with the revolving bookshelf, now invites you to look down as well as up.”
Then add the steady rhythm of the rotating bookshelf with its projections of text going in and out of view, complemented at intervals by imagery of birds in flights, adding to the sense of calm, or reflection, of being at peace with books, surrounded by such beauty.
“Whenever I make something that revolves, I notice that people fall into a reverie,” says Es. “It reminds us of what we’re trained to forget, which is that we’re constantly turning.”
In creating the Library of the Four Winds, Es has a partner operating in tandem with her. “I’ve been working with the building as the co-author since the beginning,” she says. “I view the building as a protagonist, as another of the dramatis personae.”
She wants her installation to be a conversation piece. “I hope that people who don’t love the same songs, read the same books, share the same political views, go to the same church, or speak the same language, will be brought together to discuss something else, where they don’t have to keep talking about what separates us,” says Es.
Es Devlin’s installation, Library of the Four Winds, is on show in the Temple of the Four Winds, Castle Howard, near Malton, until September 27. Entry is included in Castle Howard admission.
Every Saturday until September 26, a 45-minute drawing workshop takes place at the installation; materials are provided. Friday Lates, an opportunity to see the Library of the Four Winds on a summer evening, will be held on July 3, August 7 and September 4. To book, go to: www.castlehoward.co.uk.