Katrina Palmer’s The Coffin Jump launches at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

The Coffin Jump, an intervention in the landscape of Yorkshire Sculpture Park, by artist Katrina Palmer was launched today by HRH Princess Anne, ahead of its opening to the public tomorrow.

The artwork, which combines sculpture, soundtrack and performance, pays homage to women’s role in the First World War.

Palmer took inspiration from the all-female First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY), founded in 1907, who helped treat and evacuate wounded men from the battlefields, linking the front line with field hospitals. An inscribed fence above a trench with phrases such as ‘nothing special happened’ is occasionally activated by a horse and rider, symbolising the challenges and new freedoms afforded to women in the war.

The Coffin Jump opens Saturday 16 June 2018 and will be at Yorkshire Sculpture Park until 1 June 2019. The artwork is free to view.