I felt like I was revealing something that had always been there—something almost prehistoric that had been lost to time, and it was my job to find it again.’ Faye Toogood

Faye Toogood is a British artist working in a diverse range of disciplines, from sculpture to furniture and fashion.

Her installation of sculptural furniture for the Chapel in stone is a continuation of her latest collection Assemblage 7, in which the objects appear to be carefully excavated, as if by an archaeologist.

The pieces for the Chapel are made of Purbeck Marble, a limestone from Dorset with dense deposits of snail shells often used in English cathedrals in the middle ages. But Toogood’s elemental forms look still further back, to Neolithic standing stones, drawing on the local history of stone circles around Chatsworth.

In acknowledgement of the spiritual setting, Toogood has also provided a bronze pew and two chairs. The items are spaced so visitors can walk and stand amongst them, enjoying them up close.

For the adjoining Oak Room, decorated in panelling bought and installed by the 6th Duke of Devonshire (1790 – 1858) in the nineteenth century, Toogood has designed a suite of objects in oak and bog oak, connecting directly with both the material of the room and its use as a gathering space.

The installation centres on a large carved oak table accompanied by two stools carved from bog oak, a special type of wood found in peat bogs, which has become extremely dark and dense over many years of submersion.

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