2 minute read
Breaking glass
In a small, ruined chapel, tucked away where the wetlands at Minsmere merge with the ever-encroaching shingle beach, glass artist Arabella Marshall has installed a stunning fused glass window that thrusts its way skyward, punctuating the landscape with its vibrancy and broken beauty.
Arabella first had the idea for the piece nearly six years ago when she came across the chapel whilst walking from the village of Eastbridge out towards the coast. “I was fascinated by its location and also its sense of abandonment and wanted to create something that would both surprise and touch passers-by.” Although familiar with private commissions for her glass work, this was Arabella’s first public project, but she was delighted to have her initial idea accepted and then supported by the RSPB, Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB, Historic England and Arts Council England for the five years of detailed planning and design that followed.
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The installation, called ‘A Wing And A Prayer’, was erected towards the end of 2020 and is a bold visual statement that Arabella hopes will encourage visitors to engage with their immediate environment.
“There is undeniable beauty and peace to be found here but also contradictions, as it sits within the shadow of Sizewell Power Station and is surrounded by the scattered evidence of World War II manoeuvres, so from the very beginning I knew the piece needed to be broken in order to reflect its surroundings.” The soaring glass sculpture is cut through with space, echoing the waterways that run through the marshes, its emerald greens and flashes of scarlet in contrast to the subtler hues of gold, ochre and soft mauves that decorate the landscape.
Created in her workshop at Bridge Farm, Brandeston, it wasn’t until the sculpture was in place that Arabella felt it finally came alive, the ever-changing light catching the brightly coloured glass, whose hundreds of fragments float upwards like a flock of migrating birds. This is only phase one of the project and with restrictions lifting, there is hope of future collaborations with other Suffolk artists, the Rural Coffee Caravan and dance companies, as well as a series of workshops with local primary schools.
Although Arabella did not design the piece with any religious connotations, standing in the ruins of this neglected chapel looking up at the window you cannot help but feel a certain sense of spirituality. Arabella found inspiration here and has created a sculpture that is a joyous celebration of life. It invites conversation and contemplation and has restored this ancient ruin as a place of pilgrimage once again.
