'Art Centre' might be a bit of a misnomer when describing the site of Tyrebagger forest, but hidden within the shadowy boughs are works by internationally recognised artists who were commissioned by the forestry commission, who were seeking to produce an attraction to a green area that was in close proximity to aberdeen city. These works range in their intent and meaning but most aim to create a locus of some sort - a place where you concentrate on your environment. Some directly mirror the environment where as other merely reference it.
Meanwhile you have works like 'Birked Scar' by Donald Urquart which uses planted birch trees and burnt heather as its only medium meaning that it is hidden in the vernacular of the environment - currently the work is technically still production as the trees were planted around a perfect square of burnt heather which will over time "become bleached white" alongside the trees whose trunks will similarly grow to become white creating a pristine white space so commonly associated with modern art galleries.
Conversely the piece 'Modern Nature' by Matthew Dalziel and Louise Scullion utilizes modern technology and materials as its name may suggest. Standing tall in a small copse are a set of mock satellite dishes "like a clump of futuristic trees" their inbuilt solar panels provide energy (in a manner deliberately close to photosynthesis) for partly subterranean speakers which provide us with the auditory stimulus of a bird now locally extinct - the capercaillie. According to the artists, this serves to "alert our attention to sound in the landscape" and whilst this may indeed be the case, to me it serves as a catalyst to the recognition of the impact of man on the natural environment. So the area is rich in some diverse sculpture which is so effective because it capitalizes on its environment, whilst a separate work may be based upon the artists' own internal convictions, each sculpture is activated by its environment, a precedent re-iterated by the controversy surrounding Richard Serra's 1981 artwork 'Tilted Arc' in which Serra stated that Tilted Arc is site specific - similarly, in the case of tyrebagger, the work would not function outside of the forest. If the sculpture was placed within a white space the work would loose its resonance and such an act would effectively destroy it.
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