Mark Antony Haden Ford

Mark Ford has been exhibiting within the UK and Europe since 1990. He started art school as a painter and after three years graduated weaving with found and grown natural materials in the realm of environmental sculpture. It was the marriage with English and Creative writing graduate, Rebecca Ford in 2004 that created Two Circles Design, their working partnership making monumental woven environments for both public and private sectors. These surreal installations and ambiguous sculptures encompass a wide range of traditional skills and practices. The woven artworks directly engage with the environment as semi-permanent sculptures based on seeds and plant forms and the potential of all things. They both have a strong interest in the archaeology, geography and mystery of the natural world, drawing on ancient traditions and techniques of willow craft and woodland management. They teach workshops from their cottage in Slindon all year round. Mark is the current organiser of the Arundel Gallery Trail. www.arundelgallerytrail.co.uk and is the current installer of the annual pumpkin mural in Slindon each autumn. www.slindonpumpkins.co.uk. Currently Mark and Rebecca have work on display at The Grange Opera House, Burgh House, Hampstead, Farley Farm House, ‘the home of the surrealists’ in East Sussex, Humuspark in Italy, Kozlowka in Poland have recently created works with Slindon college, Oakwood School and UCL Archaeology and will be attending land art festivals in Europe during 2018. Environmental art has the power to change the way we view the world and questions our role within it. Mark and Rebecca’s’ contemporary woven forms are often in conversation with each other. Their site-specific ephemeral works are partly inspired by the yew forest Kingley Vale where they both spent much of their childhoods.