Friday 21st November
Hardscape have just completed sandblasting the large granite platform seat for my project at Burgess Springs, Central Chelmsford. They sent over a couple of images yesterday. Looking pretty good from here – really want to see more images !
Hard to convey to convey the size of this piece of work – each slab is approx. 1200mm x 1200mm.
I think they have done a great job – cant wait to see it installed on site.
One of the most striking & singular elements of the interpretation project at Burgess Springs, Central Chelmsford is the large granite platform seat.
This feature is some 2.4m square & manufactured in 4 large units. The surface is being sandblasted with images and text, both inspired by the writing of Anne Knight of Chelmsford.
The granite artwork is being project managed by Nigel Hudson, Masonry Product Manager for Hardscape at their premises at Long Marston, Stratford Upon Avon. The sandblasting is being carried out by Masonry Manager, Vladimir Zonozicka. We have met several times to discuss and sample the process & the collaboration has in turn, resulted in a much more interesting peice of work.
The development scheme is being delivered on behalf of Genesis Housing by Denne & project managed by Bidwells.
Thursday 13th November 2014 saw the last black basalt slab installed on Blechynden Terrace to complete the ‘Canal Shore’ artwork installation.
Left to right – Martin Miller and Jay Geary of Balfour Beatty, who have together installed all the 205 linear metres of the kerb edge artwork – which was manufactured and inlaid with text by Hardscape – along Blechynden Terrace and the forecourt of Central Station.
This almost – but not quite – completes the Phase 1 works for the Southampton Station Quarter North project being delivered by Balfour Beatty Living Places for Southampton City Council. This project is one of seven ‘Very Important Projects’ (VIP’S) & part of its City Centre Master Plan which will see one of Southampton’s most important gateways transformed into ‘an exciting arrival experience fit for a major city.’
Some more images of works in progress:
The site, adjacent to the shoreline of the Test Estuary has always been a point of confluence. The main route West in & out of the city ran along the shoreline and was known as The Strand. At a point marked by Achards Bridge, which replaced an ancient ford across the Rollesbrook Stream which enters the River Test at this point, the city boundary with Millbrook was established.
Today this site is near to the entrance to Southampton Central Station. You may cross the Rollesbrook Stream yourself each time you visit the station. The station is the gateway to the city & a critical hub & interchange.
The individual lines of texts are to be set out adjacent to the carriageway on the south side of Blechynden Terrace at site specific points along the ‘Canal Shore’ feature kerb line, & reveal in their expression something of the history and use of the local area. It is not a linear ‘narrative’ and has no specific start or finish. It will engage with people as and when they encounter the words. Some words and phrases have their origin in fact and are ‘on the record’, whilst some is anecdotal and ‘remembered’.
The text on these slabs is part of the following line – ‘The historic shoreline was here in 1846…the north shore of the River Test Estuary’
The 1846 Large Folio Royal Engineers Map held in the Southampton City Council Archive, is wonderfully accurate & detailed. It shows the planned route out over the mudflats of the unfinished ‘Dorchester Railway’. The shoreline was at this time still north of this point, with the high water mark reaching to what is now, the southern footpath of Blechynden Terrace & Southbrook Road. The historic curve of the Bay here is thought to be a meander of the ancient Solent River system. SCC Libraries & Archive
August Kenzler was lost when the Titanic struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage. He was one of seven crewmen (from more than 720 from Southampton) who lived in the area bounded by our project.
John Henry Stagg – Steward – 1st Class – Lost – 66 Commercial Road
August Kenzler – Storekeeper – Age 43 – Lost – 21 (12) Blechynden Terrace
Michael Stafford – Greaser – Age 37 – No 4 Southbrook Road
Walter Edward Saunders – Trimmer – Age 25 – No1 Suffolk Sq (off Southbrook Road)
Long – Trimmer – Age 28 – No 19 Sidford Street –
William Logan Gwinn – Age 37 – No 4 Commercial Road
13th November 2014, Ramsgate
’70 years on…’ CENTRAL CONCOURSE SCREEN FOR THE JUBILEE BUILDING, MUSGROVE PARK HOSPITAL
I recently came across the work of the photographer, John Seaman, who had been commissioned by the main contractor for the Jubilee Building BAM to make a photographic record. Very lucky for me, that he has a great eye for catching the spirit & intent of the tensile artwork and its relationship to the building and interior space. ’70 years on…’ was a collaboration with Architen Landrell & VGL Vinyl Graphics & was commissioned by Musgrove Park Hospital Capital Projects Office & Art for Life
The Central Concourse Screen ’70 years on…’ was created to celebrate the delivery of the Jubilee Surgical Building & the 70th Anniversary of Musgrove Park Hospital. The project was Heritage Lottery funded.
The work is presented as a digitally printed tensile fabric screen made of 26 individually printed panels. It is supported by a bespoke lightweight aluminium & stainless steel double-sided ladder frame 21m x 1.8m, which is itself hung from 3 steel supporting columns of the Central Concourse building. The design & manufacture of the tensile screen and its method of digital printing balance well with the content of the work & its evocation of the past to present a contemporary artwork in a 21st Century Hospital.
The artwork is presented as a landscape, which, other than at each end, where curved steel panels protect the structure, the artwork can be viewed as a continual narrative sequence. However, this is not a timeline or a linear narrative, which has to be viewed in a particular way or from a particular viewpoint. The observer can simply roll up at any point along its 42m length and begin a journey or their own.
Text was employed in the design as both an aid to the visual narrative & to emphasize the importance of the hospital’s archive collection in this 70th Anniversary year. It also recalls individual and collective voices from the last 70 years. The work done by Louise Donovan, an archivist working with staff and patients past and present to recall their experiences working here has been included in “Sensing our Past”. 70 years of Musgrove Park Hospital’, published in 2012
Words have been used to draw with, or to conjure up the dynamic energy of the hospital. It is presented in a variety of ways, for example, following the line of the Galmington Stream, which runs along the boundary of the Hospital, or as a gestural expression, such as the whirlwind vortex drawing, or a simple circle of fine white text.
They are an eclectic and often mis-matched set of words, evocative of half remembered memories, anecdotes and stories, (as opposed to reproducing hard facts and figures within a fixed timeline). There are perhaps more ‘distant’ voices from early in the life of the hospital, particularly from it’s wartime experience, but I feel this is the way with memory – recall is distant and suggestive of the ‘good old days’.
Some elements within the artwork are obviously and easily recognizable, such as the iconic Eisenhower Tree & Galmington Stream, whilst others are abstract and elusive. A great number of the references are archival in origin, such as the colours, which were influenced by boxes of medical artifacts, some in the original packaging.
Bunches of flowers appear from between the seam joints, which evoke the Lily of the Valley presented to HM The Queen Mother or flowers given by visitors, which were held in vases attached to columns in the Nightingale wards.
The photographic archive too, which contains hundreds of images of staff at work and celebrating events such as Christmas & retirements, as well as visits by Royalty, or the American World Heavyweight Boxer, Joe Louis and the entertainer Bob Hope, who both visited the Hospital during World War II.
My own personal experience of being a part of this Hospital community since 2005, when I was appointed Lead Artist on the 10 year Hospital development programme is also evident in magery influenced by past projects undertaken here.
In December 2008 I was commissioned, along with a number of other artists, to respond to the Combe Down Stone Mines Stabilisation Project, which was nearing completion after a 10 year ambitious and ground-breaking engineering-led programme.
The Combe Down Stone Mines Project was a major project undertaken by Bath & North East Somerset Council to stabilise abandoned limestone mine workings in the village of Combe Down and preserve the Health & Safety of the area. The aim of the Project was to remove the current threat to life and property of those living, working in and travelling through the Combe Down area. Collapse of the old mines, which in some instances, lay just metres beneath the surface, was a real possibility. In doing this, the Project ensured that the internationally recognised heritage, wildlife and environmental properties of the area were conserved for future generations.
The Combe Down Stone Mines Stabilisation Project was finally completed in 2010, with 25 hectares of very shallow limestone mines flooded with approximately 600,000 cubic metres of foamed concrete, the largest project of its kind in the world. Over the preceding 200 years some 700 houses had been built over the mines from which the stone was extracted to build Georgian Bath.
The project site of Combe Down, a village on the outskirts of Bath, falls within the World Heritage Site of Bath.
The arts project team was managed and led by Art Consultants Frances Lord and Steve Geliot. “To celebrate the end of the Combe Down Stone Mines Stabilisation Project the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) granted £250K funding for commissioning public art. The Combe Down Public Art Project was the result of two years of activity, events, residencies and commissions”. Frances Lord
‘1479 plates’ Art Budget: £54,000.00
Client:Bath & North East Somerset Council funded by the Homes and Communities Agency, formerly English Herirage. https://www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/combe-down-stone-mines
Agencies: Project Managers: Provelio. Main Contractors: Hydrock & Scott Wilson Specialist Consultants: Oxford Archaeology, ‘Autonomatic’ & Digital Ceramic Systems, Stoke on Trent.
A 21st Century Miner greeting a 19th Century Stone Miner. Archaeologists found a single bone of the Hare whilst excavating & recording the stone mines – ‘probably someone’s lunch!’. The leek represents the 21st Century mine workers who mostly came from South Wales.
The installation work ‘1479 plates’, was exhibited at The Octagon, an 18th Century Chapel in Bath, and featured a map of 788 bone china dinner plates , which explores the relationship between present day engineering and mining technology, stone mines heritage, archaeology, natural history, and two 18th Century entrepreneurs of the English Enlightenment, Ralph Allen and Josiah Wedgwood. The work was created in collaboration with ‘Autonomatic’ – 3D Digital Research Cluster at University College Falmouth. The plates were displayed on a curving monolithic wall, redolent of the architectural terraces in Bath, built with the stone from the mines. The exhibition was constructed and managed by REM, Richmond Event Management.
The local community was widely consulted and was from the outset a supportive and creative project champions group, attending meetings and contributing significantly to the outcome of the works. I often stayed with local families, which was a very engaging way of collaborating away from the formal meetings and group sessions.
The image above is an A0 size print made to commemorate the project which has the names of all the Miners employed by Hydrock who worked on and contributed to the Combe Down Stone Mines Stabilisation Project. Printed by Digital Arte.
691 households affected by the stabilisation works were gifted a ceramic plate – one small part of the map – representing not only the individual household but the mining underworld beneath it. Following their display at The Octagon, the original 788 dinner plates were donated to form a large scale permanent installation in Combe Down village at some point in the future.
