Art on Orford Ness
- Published:
- 26 March 2025
Over the years, Orford Ness has inspired a number of artists, writers, musicians and photographers. Read on to discover some of the recent works that have been inspired by this fascinating landscape.
When the National Trust acquired Orford Ness in 1993, it commissioned artist Dennis Creffield to capture the site in paintings. Since then, art has played an important part in its history and every year, it continues to inspire artists of every kind.
Research Art Lab
Research Art Lab took place on Orford Ness throughout 2025 as part of a long-term partnership between the National Trust and the University of Suffolk.
11 artists drew on both the present and past of Orford Ness, using their experience of it, today, alongside archival resources as inspiration for their work. Themes ranged from early camouflage techniques and colour palettes that were tested at the site during the First World War to contemporary botanical drawings inspired by the flora found on the shingle and marshland.
The artists each took part in a three-week residency and worked across a variety of media, including drawing, sculpture, painting, installation, film, photography, text and performance. Many of the artists were based in Suffolk and knew the Ness well, while others travelled from London and California to bring new and different perspectives to the landscape.
HighTide on Orford Ness
HighTide's sonic story, Ness: an audio landscape, took visitors on a specially designed sonic journey, weaving fragments of Robert Macfarlane’s poem, Ness, into a dramatic audio play that revealed itself through the use of geolocated sound.
Produced by writer-centred theatre company, HighTide, and created and directed by associate artist Zoë Svendsen and award-winning sound designer Carolyn Downing, the production was funded by the University of Cambridge.
It formed part of growing research into climate dramaturgy, a new and evolving creative practice that encourages climate-positive choices in the making, performing and watching of theatrical productions.
Camera O
Orford Ness reopened for its 30th visitor season on April 5-6 with a live camera obscura, a phenomena that uses a mirror and lens to focus and project an image onto a flat surface.
The camera obscura was set up by Drs Jane Watt and Susan Barnet from the University of Suffolk as part of Camera O, a new project which draws on the heritage of observation and recording at Orford Ness.
Originally invented by artists to aid perspectival drawing, the technique was later adopted in science and the development of photography. In the first half of the 20th century, it was used on Orford Ness in the Bomb Ballistics Building to plot and gather data on bomb accuracy.
Earlier this year, Susan and Jane, along with art technicians from the University of Suffolk, temporarily installed a working camera obscura on the first floor of the Bomb Ballistics building as part of a two-day residency with a group of first, second and third year BA (Hons) Fine Art students.
They used the camera obscura as an instrument to observe the sky, sea and land south towards the Power House and Black Beacon. The result is a series of round drawings made directly from the projected camera obscura image, a selection of which has been curated for the Camera O exhibition and will be on show in the Bomb Ballistics Building from 5 April-26 October 2025.
Make It Count
In 2024, National Trust Orford Ness partnered with the University of Suffolk for Make It Count, a public exhibition of drawings, paintings, sculpture, photography and text inspired by the landscape and history of Orford Ness.
The works were created by students and staff from the university as part of Jane Watt and SE Barnet’s ongoing research project, Blast Radius, which centres around observing and recording the unique landscape at Orford Ness.
Ness Speaks
In September 2024, over 300 guests attended four sold-out acoustic performances of Ness, a new album created by singer-songwriter Hayden Thorpe.
Inspired by Robert Macfarlane’s book of the same name, which was illustrated by the artist Stanley Donwood, the event also featured readings from Rob, book and album signings and a Q&A.
Afterness
Curated by leading art producers, Artangel, Afterness ran in 2021 and 2022 and featured the work of 10 internationally acclaimed artists.
Art events on Orford Ness
Each year we host a number of events dedicated to exploring Orford Ness as a place of creative inspiration. Check out our events page now to see what's coming up.