FORESTRY England's latest exhibition at Grizedale Forest is Seeing Through the Ground by Andrea Gregson.

Andrea's artwork, which includes graphite trace drawings and cast metal sculptures, delves into Grizedale’s industrial history of iron smelting, charcoal burning, bobbin making, gunpowder and graphite production. She explores the landscape as a relic of past production and the history of interaction between people, nature, and industrial processes in the Grizedale valley. Her installations were developed while spending time at historic iron smelting sites in Grizedale Forest and the nearby Stott Park Bobbin Mill.

One such piece, Carbon Delta, is cast from rocks found in Hobb Gill - one of the smelting sites – and transformed into ductile iron using the sand casting process. This work, along with other bronze sculptures, alludes to the metal casting industry’s dependence on water as well as acknowledging the glaciers that shaped the landscape.

As well as an artist, Andrea - who is based in London - is a curator and senior lecturer in fine art at University for the Creative Arts. She explains that in June 1989 she had a successful work placement at Grizedale Forest which gave her a unique insight into the potential of art and nature in dialogue: "I'm really pleased to return for this exhibition which explores the conflicts and connections between landscape, nature and industry within the context of the Anthropocene, the current geological epoch shaped by human activity.

Andrea's exhibition - which runs until August 31 - also includes sculptures inspired by organic forest elements, anchoring it in Grizedale’s arboreal context. Bringing the forest into the gallery space, Spectre is a multiple installation composed of bracket fungus, commonly found on trees weak from damage caused by man or nature, cast into porcelain like ghostly parasites on the gallery wall.

Seeing Through the Ground ties in nicely with the Forestry Commission's 100th anniversary. Forestry England is part of the Forestry Commission, which was established in 1919 to replenish the nation’s timber reserves following the First World War. Grizedale was bought by the commission in 1937.