In 2010, the Sculpture Garden at Burghley will host work by over 20 sculptors. The exhibition Process will explore how sculpture may be defined aesthetically, conceptually or formally by a single process of making, including techniques such as carving, casting, construction, fabrication and even weaving.

The latter is exemplified by Laura Ellen Bacon, who weaves magical spells in wicker. At Burghley she will integrate several forms into selected trees to resemble giant wasp nests, leaf galls or cavernous webs. The process of weaving is also central to Rachel Carter’s architectural sculptures; composed of twisting leaning arches that visitors can walk through. Some sculptors play with notions of scale through process; one exemplar being John Squire who has unfolded giant steel boxes to create complex interiors that also suggest unfurling metamorphosis. Other pieces reference more high tech manufacturing, such as Jilly Sutton’s The Fallen Deodar, which resembles the strata manufacture analogous with rapid prototyping. Notable works also include a captured ray of sunshine, cast glass sculptures, a breathing inflatable, skeletal figures by Linda Johns that merge into the landscape and Giles Kent’s tangled wooden growth that will spread throughout the laurel tunnel.