Artist hopes farmhouse work will prove plastic fantastic

A LOCAL artist is preparing to cover a farmhouse in black plastic to highlight the plight of the rural hill farm.

Ettie Spencer's latest work, All Wrapped Up, will see the East Lothian-based artist cover the entire site, in Eden Valley, Cumbria, with black plastic.

Croft Farm has recently been vacated by the 87-year-old farmer's wife, something Ms Spencer said had led the family there to realise it was the end of an era.

The artist said she wanted to explore whether the tendency towards living in larger cities meant people were now unaware of the plight of the countryside.

"Like a large silage mound or haystack, the house will be wrapped in black plastic sheeting and tied up with bailer twine," she said.

The aim is to make the house appear as a dark and ominous shape on the landscape, to provoke discussion.

The artist is no stranger to large scale work, and earlier this year planted a large tobacco crop in the empty offices of St Margaret's House on London Road as part of the Edinburgh Art Festival.

With the plants left to grow out of the window, the aim of Tobacco House was to raise questions about issues surrounding the tobacco industry.