Kielder Water & Islands - Layla Curtis 2008

Kielder Water & Islands is a free artwork that takes the form of a map whose content details the current landscape of Kielder Water & Forest Park but also includes as a series of 'islands' in the lake, detailing the communities that existed in the valley before Kielder Water was constructed in the late 1970's.

Artist Layla Curtis worked as an Artist in Residence during 2007-08 and became interested in the way that the lost communities of the valley live on in people's memories and the archive images taken before the valley was flooded. Kielder Water & Islands takes this research and portrays it in the form of an imagined landscape where the missing hamlets and farms resurface as visible features, encouraging visitors travelling around the lake to ponder on ther links between a tangible present and the past that can now only lives on in memory.

Kielder Water & Islands is available free from all Kielder visitor centres. Further examples of Layla Curtis' work can be found at www.laylacurtis.com