A trip to New Art Centre, Roche Court
sunshine and sculpture
Wowowowowow, Friday was a beautiful blue and frosty day for a first visit to New Art Centre at Roche Court Sculpture Park in East Winterslow, Wiltshire to catch the exhibition Olivia Bax: Handrailing before it closed this weekend.1
We got the train from Winchester to Salisbury, the friendly Winterslow bus along country lanes, and then a half-hour walk spotting a red kite in a tree, plenty of ponies, and a happy country cat who’d caught a vole. A perfect day (for me and for the cat).2
The artworks, the site, and the spaces are breathtaking, and the way the works have been placed is inspired: in conversation with the landscape, light, and rooms. The rainbow on Olivia Bax’s work in Meander Scar (see image below) is from the join/gap in the gallery glazing, and I loved how Cairn (the yellow/green sculpture also shown below) held hands with the structure and colours of the bushes outside.
The view from the house, which is a private home, is a diorama of garden-field-trees-field-sky; a scene in which you can experience ‘deep time’, with no real signs of modern life. Pick your era/age and imagine yourself there.
Time also stops inside the ‘Design House’ and the ‘Artists House’ – two exhibition spaces that had some of the best acoustics I’ve experienced recently. Total quiet, total peace.
Images left to right in rows from the top:
Peter Randall-Page, Fructus, 2009
View looking into the Olivia Bax exhibition in the Gallery and the Orangery, with the next images being details of the following:
Vis-à-vis II, 2023
Great Catch, 2024
Meander Scar, 2021
Cairn, 2022
Monkey Cups, 2018
NAC x KOTO Designs, The Writing House, 2020 (dream residency space!)
David Nash, detail of Black Flame Column, 2010 – with a herd of deer in the background
Michael Craig-Martin, Fountain Pen (turquoise), 2019
Adam Buick’s jars and Jennifer Lloyd Jones’s pots outside the Design House, plus Hubert Dalwood, White and Orange, 1964
Edmund de Waal, music, late, 2019 (cropped detail with window reflections)
Gardener’s ladder on the frosty lawn (I don’t think this was an official sculpture, but I loved it). In the background: Edmund de Waal’s water, wind, stone and wind, water, stone, 2023
Richard Long, detail of Tame Buzzard Line, 2001
Peter Newman, Skystation, 2019 – with the invitation to ‘sit and enjoy the view above’. Behind: Beverley Pepper, Medea, 2019–2021
Nigel Ross, Pictish Oak, 2021 – no sitting permitted on this one, which was a shame as it’s so clearly shaped for bottoms 〰️〰️
A good big tree
I highly recommend a visit. Be sure to email and book in advance; when you arrive, you ring the bell at the main house to sign in – these are rules and requests that I would usually feel were intimidating barriers to accessing art … but as it’s a private home, I can understand the need for them, and the team managing email and visitor experience made it all feel super welcoming.
To get there, driving would be the easiest option, but the train and bus worked well for us on a sunny day and at leisure (bus times are not all that regular, so plan it carefully) and there are lots of nice walks to/from/in/around East Winterslow via the various byways.
The site’s not fully accessible, but the team can provide more info and support with access when you phone/email.
Oh, and there’s no café there so pack a flask and a picnic for your journey, though NB no picnics allowed on site.
If you’re interested, I recommend joining their mailing list, which is a particularly lovely one – they share a ‘work of the week’, which gives a nice moment of inspiration in any email inbox.
More info on their website sculpture.uk.com and via instagram.com/newartcentre
Olivia Bax: Handrailing was a solo exhibition in conjunction with Sid Motion Gallery, held at New Art Centre, Roche Court Sculpture Park from 14 September 2024 – 5 January 2025. I’ll try not to make a habit of recommending exhibitions when they’ve already closed … you can see Olivia Bax’s work on Instagram and at oliviabax.co.uk, or if you happen to have plans to be in Milan, there’s an exhibition on until 25th January at Ribot Gallery.
