An Artist in Residence
“Having grown up in the area, and working predominantly in the rest of the UK and in Europe, it is always enjoyable and satisfying to be able to create work in the community in which I grew up. Since 2005 I have been developing artwork in the area as part of wide reaching public art projects within the community. Therefore the development of the St Chad statue and residency with Lichfield Cathedral, offers great opportunity to further develop this work.” - Peter Walker
Peter Walker is the Cathedral's Artist in Residence. He is orginally from Lichfield, and is an internationally renowned sculptor and artist. Peter is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and member of the Royal Society of British Sculptors. Producing sculptures, paintings, drawings, installation pieces, as well as Son-et-Lumiere, his extensive creative ability has led him to produce over 15 public statues located around the country and have works in private and public collections worldwide.
Locally, Peter has founded Lichfield City's very first Sculpture Trail as part of the 'A City as Sculpture' Project TM. He is artistic director for The Sculpture and Art Foundation C.I.C and since 2005 has worked extensively with members of the local community to develop the visual arts and allow opportunity and access to the arts.
Peter now shares his creative artwork and experience with visitors to Lichfield Cathedral and the local community to enable participation in the arts and in the creation and development of projects - including the creation of the statue of Saint Chad.
The Artist in Residence project in 2017
After the previous year’s immensely successful installations ‘Before Action’ and ‘A Cathedral illuminated: 10,000 Angels’, where thousands flocked to attend, Lichfield Cathedral’s Artist in Residence, Peter Walker, has been extremely busy building on the momentum that has been produced working with the Cathedral team. The Archbishop of Canterbury himself acknowledged Lichfield Cathedral to be:
‘The most Imaginative Cathedral in Britain’ (Justin Welby, 2017)
2017 began with the ‘Mr Turner Comes to Lichfield’. Peter was asked to oversee the curation and installation of the exhibition and introduced contemporary lighting, projections, sound and a “narrative approach” to the placement of artwork. In addition, he organised the ‘Capture the Cathedral Competition’ for local artists to paint and photograph the Cathedral with the winner having their work feature in the exhibition alongside a painting by JMW Turner, bequeathed to Lichfield Cathedral.
The Turner exhibition brought in significant audience. Peter also created external frames around locations in the city for visitors and local residents to photograph the city from the perspective of Turner when he visited Lichfield.
Next came the 2017 Gala Dinner where projection artwork featured as a backdrop. Peter was also guest speaker at the Friends of Lichfield Cathedral Candlemas Supper, providing projection artwork and giving a talk outlining the vision for the coming years.
One of the main visual attractions in 2017 was ‘The Great Exhibition’, a concept Peter has been developing for some time and which he brought forward during the summer. Last year saw the theme explored - ‘Earth, What a Wonderful World?’ when 6,000 ticketed visitors came through the door to see the Nave laid out with grass. Light and sound displays were used to illustrate cultures from around the world; the Chapter House was turned into an aquarium with projection art, and the sky filmed over 24 hours was projected on the ceiling of the Lady Chapel. Thousands of butterflies having messages written on by visitors, were hung in a summer house on the Nave lawn. William Morris patterns decorated the pillars, a water fountain in the crossing and a beach café also featured.
The introduction of a film festival saw families and children relaxing on the Nave grass with blankets, deckchairs. The Great Exhibition encouraged many who had never been inside a cathedral before to enjoy the sacred space together and learn about the Cathedral and all it has to offer.
During Advent, ‘Star of Wonder, Star of Light’ was the year’s major seasonal attraction, drawing approximately 18,000 ticketed visitors to the Cathedral. External projection was placed on The Palace (Lichfield Cathedral School) and the Cathedral's West Front, as well as the interior, over a five-night period. Bespoke music composed by David Harper together with Peter Walker’s visuals (together they comprise the team Luxmuralis) showed audiences the story of the Nativity.
The impressive installation inside the Cathedral entitled ‘Starry Starry Night’ engaged 5,000 children who participated in the creation of individual stars, writing prayers and messages on each star.
The installation was featured on ITV regional and ITV national news broadcasts. The artwork gained national press coverage and was used on the Church Times Christmas edition front cover.
Since its media launch in 2016, work continues on the development of the St Chad statue project. Work begins on the statue itself in March 2019.
In addition to his much-admired work within an around the Cathedral, Peter’s sculptural and fine artwork work is sold to collectors internationally, and his work as a sculptor sees a number of forthcoming major commissions. He is currently involved in planning a major installation as part of the Bodleian Library’s “The Maker of Middle Earth” JRR Tolkien retrospective, as well as a series of large scale works at other cathedrals and cities.
To visit Peter Walker's website, please click here.