Swifts screech overhead, hares lope along grassy paths, and butterflies flutter in the woodland fringe. An orchard, chickens, and beehives complete the scene. This appears to be a conventional slice of English countryside—until visitors encounter striking sculptures fashioned from chunks of reclaimed steel or machinery parts salvaged from factories, shipyards, and farms.
Heavy Metal Exhibition
The pieces are the stars of a show called Heavy Metal, which brings together work by one of the UK’s most significant 20th-century artists, Anthony Caro, and one of his successors, James Capper. The exhibition is held at Albion Barn and Fields in south Oxfordshire, directed and owned by Michael Hue-Williams.
Hue-Williams said he is not a fan of conventional sculpture parks. “I like the idea of suddenly seeing a sculpture emerge. You walk around for a while and just discover something wonderful as if by chance.”
Those with very deep pockets can buy—Hue-Williams is a well-known and successful dealer—but ordinary lovers of art and nature are invited to take a peek for free as long as they book in and promise not to clamber over the sculptures.
Anthony Caro’s Works
Caro, who died in 2013, is considered one of Britain’s most influential postwar sculptors. He was involved in the creation of the Millennium Bridge in London and is celebrated for his use of repurposed scrap metal. The show at Albion Barn includes pieces such as Erl King, in which a hefty ship’s anchor is used to create what seems to be a hulking medieval helmet.
Another work, Star Flight, is made out of galvanised steel. From one angle, the parish church of St James provides a backdrop; from another, the faraway Wittenham Clumps, a pair of wooded chalk hills, do the job. A third Caro sculpture, on the edge of woodland close to a barn owl nest, is made out of a cattle crush that would have been used to hold cows during examination or treatment. Called Slow Passage, parts have been painted red, which Hue-Williams said reminded him of the Dutch abstract painter Piet Mondrian’s work.
James Capper’s Contributions
One of the standout pieces by Capper is called IRIS, which features what appears to be a repurposed industrial “grabber.” Some of Capper’s pieces move; the grabber parts of IRIS open like a flower’s petal. A Capper sculpture inside a tractor barn converted into a gallery comprises two objects made of fierce-looking nipping blades perched on a girder like stag beetles squaring up.
The catalogue produced for the show tells how Capper went for an interview as a welder for Caro, but the senior artist told him to go back to his own studio and keep working on his own sculptures. He did just that and now works in a studio on an old military airfield in Wiltshire.
Setting and Background
The woods at Albion Barn were planted by Hue-Williams’ father, Giles Hue-Williams, a rewilding project before the idea became so popular. Sadly, he was killed by a swarm of bees while working in his orchard. But he created a spot that suits art well. Visitors should be warned: there is no gift shop and no cafe (the thatched pub over the garden wall is picking up a few extra customers), just acres of fields and woods and sculptures that loom out of the landscape.
Hue-Williams’ daughter, Lucca Hue-Williams, who is director and founder of the central London gallery Albion Jeune and jointly curated Heavy Metal, admitted there was something a little crazy in the concept of a show of such important artists tucked away in the Oxfordshire countryside.
“It’s a hidden gem but I thought it was important to have an intergenerational show,” she said. “It’s a dialogue between Anthony Caro, one of the greatest artists from the last century, and an artist whom he has particularly inspired and had a relationship with, James Capper. People can come, wander in the fields. It’s very British but fun.”
Visits can be booked on Thursdays and Fridays via the website. The exhibition is not suitable for under-12s, and visitors aged 12-17 must be supervised by an adult at all times.
