England's highest art gallery stages an ace show

High up in the North Pennines, the sculptor Diane Maclean is showing "Bird", an exhibition of sculpture and photography at Killhope Museum in Upper Weardale, - which, at 1500' above sea level, I'm fairly confident must be England's highest gallery. It was also winner of the Guardian's first "Family Friendly Museum" award a few years ago. The show's on until October 9th. As you approach the gallery, after travelling along one of the loveliest and emptiest roads in England, you're greeted by "Wing", a 15 foot long cage-like sculpture and "Plume" a 14 foot high feather made of coloured stainless steel that reacts to the constantly changing light patterns of Upper Weardale. Behind the museum, near to Killhope's huge waterwheel, is "Green Wind", consisting of three tapered columns up to 22 foot high and capped by green coloured stainless steel abstract wing shapes that turn in the wind. Meanwhile, in the woods nearby, is "Ovum", a large (3 foot high) egg shape made up of stainless steel bands through which an internal golden yolk can be seen. Inside, vying for attention with minerals from the mine, is a series of large scale photographs showing the variety of birds and their disparate habitats - a bird of prey in the turbulent sky above Ecuador, an Ostrich striding across the Namibian desert and a Javanese Singing Cock (symbolically "encaged" by the words of a poem "Love Song of A Javanese Singing Cock" specially written for the exhibition by Canadian poet and epidemiologist David Waltner-Toews , which includes the wistful lines "You raise your vermilion comb, cock your head, and stretch out your long dark neck. You are the voice of the wild pheasant in the city, the throaty soul of this foul city, my heart"). On the floor, inviting toddlers to pretend to jump in, is a shimmering blue photographic work showing jackass penguins swimming off the tip of Southern Africa while a background tape plays the beguiling sounds of 99 different birds singing. An isolated former lead mine on the roof of England may not be the most obvious place to hold a contemporary art exhibition, but "Bird", which was organised by Durham County Council's DLI Museum & Durham Art Gallery sits there very well. Diane Maclean is a member of the Society of Scottish Artists and a fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors. Previous commissions include works for the Natural History Museum , for the University of Guelph in Canada and for the Glenmore Forest Park as part of the Highland Year of Culture in 2007. Later this year she'll be showing her work in the more urban setting of Stephenson's Works behind Central Station in Newcastle, where the Rocket and many other early trains were built.