The Bedford Project
FOREST
Sun 6th July 14.30
Marston Vale Millennium Country Park
Forest Centre
Forest of Marston Vale
Station Rd.
Marston Moretaine

Sweep the garden, any size.
You first must be on the path, before you can turn and walk into the wild.

If you go down to the woods today, you're in for a big surprise, because certain items from local natural history collections will be temporarily relocated to Marston Vale Community Forest, which is situated on the outskirts of Bedford. Birds of prey could appear somewhere in the tree canopy coupled with bizarre sightings, perhaps on the forest floor, of freeze-dried mammals including deer, badgers and foxes.

The artist interacted with these creatures in a variety of unique ways, and using a megaphone Stitt communicated, with evangelical enthusiasm, his own deeply personal message to nature.

Forest is concerned with ideas of cultural inheritance.For instance, museum collection policies have progressed over the centuries and it can be argued that the prevalence of 'transcontinental dominator culture' - during the zenith of the British Empire - has led some curators to question their operations and cultural inheritance.

One of the ethical dilemmas facing certain contemporary museums is the presence of large collections of stuffed and mounted animals. Many of these animals were hunted, killed and preserved specifically for public display, but at the expense of near-extinction of entire species.