Wanderlust

This artwork featured in Borderlands (2026).

Charlie Hurcombe’s practice often engages with notions of location, displacement and constructed meaning. He recently engaged deeply with the landscape of Hergest Ridge, above Kington, which is split in half by the English/Welsh border and the ancient Offa’s Dyke earthwork – though the exact line is often faint or even lost.

The work is made from an oak tree felled by a storm and donated to the artist, combined with found pieces of flooring. The 22 oak pieces meander across the gallery serving as a metaphor for borderlands and the duality of separation and connection. They evoke tracks and passages, signs and lines, mapping and exploring: all forms of the tension that exists between visual and physical experience. Visitors are invited to walk across and follow the line of the sculptural installation.

Image: Charlie Hurcombe, Wanderlust, Oak and reclaimed flooring. Installation view, BorderLands, Hay Castle, 2026. Image courtesy of Meadow Arts. Photographer, Finn Beales.

 

About the artist

Charlie Hurcombe

Charlie Hurcombe exhibited in BorderLands (15 May – 31 August 2026).