Coming Up - The Great Derbyshire Palaeolithic Hunt

The Great Derbyshire Palaeolithic Hunt
A site-specific contemporary arts project from Bruce Rimell

The Great Derbyshire Palaeolithic Hunt is a site-specific contemporary art project created by artist Bruce Rimell which takes art based on engravings and artefacts found at the Palaeolithic site of Creswell Crags out to the wider world of Derbyshire in the UK. Over seventy 'art packs' containing transparent perspex art objects have been scattered around the county, and the call is for participants to go out and hunt for them in the same way that our Palaeolithic ancestors once hunted this landscape for their food.

In taking the site of the caves at Creswell Crags and mirroring the ancient experiences and engraved artistic expressions of that site across the whole of Derbyshire, I am attempting to turn the whole county into a Palaeolithic Hunt for the participants. More importantly, by engaging in a hunt for objects whose form strongly resonates with such imagery as bison, mammoths and flintheads, across a landscape where we know Palaeolithic hunters once roamed, the participants relive a profound archetypal experience of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

The Great Derbyshire Palaeolithic Hunt has been generously supported with a bursary from the re:place project, funded by Derbyshire County Council, Derbyshire Arts Development Group, the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and Arts Council England. On a personal note I am truly excited about this project, which ahs already led me to some profound and unique experiences, among them a private tour of the UK’s only known Palaeolithic Art engravings in Church Hole Cave at Creswell Crags.

This project opens in Autumn 2009 and is expected to run for two years. Further information can be found at the project’s website.