WORLD renowned artist Charles Jencks is transforming the site of a former open cast coal mine in Dumfries and Galloway into a 55-acre work of land art.
Dubbed “The Crawick Multiverse” the landmark is expected to be a major draw to visitors to the surrounding hills.
Tonnes of earth and around 2,000 large boulders from around the site have been used to create the huge work of art in Upper Nithsdale, Dumfries and Galloway.
It is nearly complete, with a public launch event planned for the summer solstice on June 21.
The site’s managers, Crawick Artland Trust, say the land art links the themes of space, astronomy and cosmology.
It will include a network of paths which wind around landforms and features representing the Sun and the cosmos.
Charles Jencks said: “This former open cast coal site, nestled in a bowl of large rolling hills, never did produce enough black gold to keep digging. But it did, accidentally, create the bones of a marvellous ecology.
“This work of land art, created primarily from earth and boulders on the site, celebrates the surrounding Scottish countryside and its landmarks, looking outwards and back in time.”
Jencks is a leading figure in landscape architecture and has created works across the globe, including ‘Northumberlandia’ in the UK and Beijing Olympic Park’s ‘Black Hole Terrace’.
