A TEESSIDE artist who made a paper bridge strong enough to hold a car is to create an installation inspired by Teesdale waterfalls.

Steve Messam will transform three whitewashed barns into an artwork called Waterfall at Bowlees Visitor Centre. Viewing will be over six nights from October 14-16 and 21-23.

He said: “In this area you have barns on one side of the road and Low Force waterfall on the other. This installation brings those two significant elements of the landscape together and makes people think about them in conjunction with each other. The elements are inextricably connected.

"The barns are made from local stone, which has come from the same ground that the water is flowing over and eroding to create waterfalls.”

He will film Cauldron Snout, High Force and Low Force in high definition, slow motion video. The films will be projected on to the four sides of the barns on hillside east of the visitor centre to create slow motion pulses of water.

“We’re anticipating some people will come and observe for long periods, others will walk past with only a passing glance, some will love it and some will hate it, but that’s the joy of art,” he added.

The installation coincides with 200 years since Turner visited the valley.

"When he travelled here, it was during ‘the summer that never was’ because there was so much rain," said Mr Messam, "but that meant he saw the waterfalls at their most spectacular.

"Turner produced one image of Cauldron Snout that actually incorporated elements of High and Low Force into the same image and that is similar to what I’m doing with the video projections, blending the footage of all three waterfalls together to project as one on to the barns.”

The North Pennines AONB Partnership is organising workshops for primary schoolchildren exploring landscape and geology. These will be funded by Cllrs Richard Bell and Ted Henderson.

The artwork is being organised by Durham County Council in association with the AONB partnership and is produced by permission of Raby Estates.