Visitors to south Oxfordshire can discover striking sculptures made from reclaimed steel and salvaged machinery parts in a free outdoor exhibition titled Heavy Metal. The show, at Albion Barn and Fields, brings together works by Anthony Caro, one of the UK's most significant 20th-century artists, and his successor James Capper.
Art Hidden in the Countryside
Michael Hue-Williams, director and owner of Albion Barn, said he dislikes conventional sculpture parks. "I like the idea of suddenly seeing a sculpture emerge. You walk around for a while and just discover something wonderful as if by chance." The exhibition is open to the public for free by booking, with the condition that visitors do not climb on the sculptures.
Swifts screech overhead, hares lope along grassy paths, and butterflies flutter near woodland. The site includes an orchard, chickens, and beehives—a seemingly typical slice of English countryside until the artworks emerge.
Key Works by Anthony Caro
Caro, who died in 2013, was a leading postwar sculptor involved in creating London's Millennium Bridge. He is known for using repurposed scrap metal. At Albion Barn, his pieces include Erl King, made from a hefty ship's anchor that resembles a hulking medieval helmet. Another, Star Flight, is crafted from galvanised steel; from one angle, St James's parish church forms a backdrop, from another, the Wittenham Clumps—a pair of wooded chalk hills. A third Caro sculpture, Slow Passage, sits near a barn owl nest and is made from a cattle crush, painted in red that Hue-Williams said evokes Piet Mondrian's abstract work.
James Capper's Moving Sculptures
James Capper's standout piece IRIS features a repurposed industrial grabber whose parts open like a flower's petal. Inside a converted tractor barn gallery, his Atlas 2017 comprises two fierce-looking nipping blades on a girder, resembling stag beetles squaring up. The exhibition catalogue recounts how Capper once interviewed as a welder for Caro, but the senior artist urged him to focus on his own work. Capper now works from a studio on a former military airfield in Wiltshire.
A Family Legacy of Rewilding
The woods at Albion Barn were planted by Hue-Williams's father, Giles Hue-Williams, an early rewilding project. He was tragically killed by a swarm of bees while working in his orchard. Michael Hue-Williams noted that the site suits art well, with no gift shop or café—though a nearby thatched pub has seen extra customers.
Lucca Hue-Williams, director of Albion Jeune gallery in London and co-curator of Heavy Metal, called the exhibition a "hidden gem." She said, "It's a dialogue between Anthony Caro, one of the greatest artists from the last century, and an artist whom he has particularly inspired and had a relationship with, James Capper. People can come, wander in the fields. It's very British but fun."
The exhibition is open Thursdays and Fridays, with visits bookable online. It is not suitable for under-12s, and children aged 12–17 must be supervised by an adult at all times.
