21 Jun 2025 – 14 Sep 2025
Six BHAAM members recently took part in a major exhibition at Somerset’s Rural Life Museum in Glastonbury titled “Tractored by Beetles”. The intriguing title comes from a poem written in 2019 by Poet Laureate Simon Armitage called Fugitives. It was dedicated to the National Landscapes of the UK – over a quarter of which are in the West Country. Tractored by Beetles sets the scene for this group exhibition of six artists, all of whom live or make work in the Blackdown Hills’ very special rural landscapes.
Liz Gregory and Tim Martin document in their different ways journeying to Glastonbury from their respective homes. Jon England and Fiona Hingston develop very personal connections to the Somerset locations they are rooted in. Alice Crane draws from several landscapes, places she calls temporary ‘homes’ – from the North East to the West Country, while André Wallace explores what it is to be human; his sculptures resonating with the wonderment of the Tithe Barn space itself.
The show worked across a range of media, from sculpture to film, painting and collage, printmaking and photography. New and recent works explored the spaces of the museum from the gallery to the orchard and the vast tithe barn; the museum’s stillness at odds with its noisy working past. The show attempted to uncover what working in this region means for artists today. It offered new and diverse perceptions that invited audiences to reconsider their connections to landscape, rurality and the wider human condition. Artworks were realised from landscapes, the passage of time, histories and transformation through a range of methodologies – from collecting and making journeys to specific studio practices.
