community art?
the council have announced a fairly short ‘public consultation’ period to help decide what piece of sculpture will be commissioned and placed in that wee fenced off area in the road junction between Laurence house & the catford broadway theatre
as usual with any public consultation, the opportunities open for the public to actually input into the process are kept to a minimum - the consultation period runs for only 9 days, and despite information being given about the consultation on the council’s website, no information or pictures about any of the potential sculpture pieces have been provided on their website, neither was any information about the consultation or the sculptures contained in the latest edition of Lewisham Life, our so called guide to what’s going on in the borough.
There is however, a comments book inside Laurence house, where the information about the sculptures is contained, that invites the public to tick their selected choice, no provision has been made however for those who do not like any of the 4 candidates up for selection.
to save anyone the time of trudging down to laurence house, i’ve taken some photos of the candidates and noted some of the blurb in relation to each piece
‘Windfall’ by Joseph Ingleby
This sculpture is apparently designed to ‘encapsulate the spirit of Catford, ancient & modern’ and provide a ‘dynamic yet reassuring focal point’.
Joseph apparently makes work that ‘responds intuitively and sensitively to all environments’, and has a ‘universal simplicity in their abstraction’
dynamic, intuitive, respondent and sensitive are not exactly phrases i’d used to describe this piece, it’s great that it has universal simplicity, but i thought the point of the exercise was to develop something that represents something specific or special to Catford, not some abstract concept that is detached from any real connection with our community
The artist seems to have spent most of their working life in Farnham and Glasgow
‘The Rise and Fall’ by Raphael Daden
This piece was inspired by a combination of the 'the decorative spires' across the town and a ‘ripple pattern inspired by the river ravensbourne’. Furthermore it intends to ‘unify and represent elements of modern day catford’.
furthermore, ‘by day, natural light will flow through the slots and by night, LED lighting will run through it to create the impression of water’
the artist has mentioned that he would like to hold some workshops and additional community consultation to help decide whether only one of these spheres should be built at a height of 9m, or whether 3 individual ones will be built with heights of 7m, 6m & 5m
The artist seems to have spent most of their career in Nottingham and Loughborough
‘Origin of the Secret Two’ by Hsiao Chi Tsui & Kimiya Yoshikawa
this sculpture is supposed to provide a ‘welcoming strong visual impact from every angle’ and by day be a ‘bright and exciting landmark’ yet at night a ‘mysterious and spiritual’ thing
in a familiar tone, this piece represents a ‘unification of Catford’s past & present’ and takes its inspiration from things like a chandelier of the old hippodrome (1911 - 1960) and the art deco style of the broadway theatre
its ‘vibrant colour reflects Catford’s rich cultural diversity’
‘Untitled’ by Tom Cox Bisham
When Tom came to visit Catford he was ’struck by the range of buildings, with different functions’ that we had here in Catford (has he ever been outside prior to this?!), he wanted to do something which reflects this fact, however at the same time wanted to avoid ‘producing a toytown replica of the place’ erm…..
To achieve this he’s decided to go for a ‘visually stimulating group of sculptures’ which ‘not only commemorate the town but is also truly part of it’, he goes on to tell us that ‘placed in a public sphere, they would be free to spread out, and with room to breathe the traditional design elements would become more apparent’, finally he assures us that he intends to ‘create a work that will be enjoyed by the town, and that hopefully in time, will develop a fondness for the pieces’
He does seem to be pinning a lot of hope on us ‘eventually’ liking them…..
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I’m no art critic, and i’m sure those qualified in this area would find things of commendation in all of the pieces above, however a few things strike me about all of them:-
1. none of the artists appear to have any connection with the area whatsoever (only two of them even mention having visited the place), and i think to an extent that comes through in each of the pieces - they all look like something that has been a conception in the artist’s mind for sometime and an accompanying blurb has been rustled up to try to connect the piece with the community (a lot of the rhetoric seems like it could be applied to any town or place in britain). I would have hoped that the council would have used this as a chance to give an opportunity to local artists to come up with something which would have perhaps had more resonance with the area. Additionally it would have been nice to see the £40,000 that’s available from the council to the winning artist to create the sculpture being spent locally and been used towards encouraging local artists in the area
2. the location of the proposed sculpture is currently the fenced off area in the middle of the road between the broadway theatre and laurence house. at present it’s inaccessible to pedestrians and surrounded by roads at all sides. This area is however, in accordance with the catford town centre action plan, due to be made a fully pedestrianised area if the rerouting of the south circular behind laurence house goes ahead. This means that the potential sculptures at present have been designed predominantly for a landscape that is due to change quite radically over the next few years, and therefore it seems to be jumping the gun a bit commissioning 40 grand bits of art to go in a location that will be completely transformed in the near future
looking through the comments book, in addition to swathes of comments saying that the money should be spent on, milford towers, more affordable housing, public toilets,local education services, a public clock, some nice trees, keeping the hospital fully open, providing better child care facilities, or better provision for elderly care, by far the majority of those who expressed a choice were in favour of the ‘Origin of the Secret Two’. It will be interesting to see if the council follows the (albeit severely restricted) expressed wishes of the local people
Personally, and if forced, i’d go with Origin of the Secret Two, it’s light, bright and quite inspiring, and in my opinion would be most suited to the area when/if it becomes pedestrianised
March 4th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Why can’t they plant a lovely tree there, most of the sculptures are hideous, especially 1 & 4, whatever they are supposed to represent , myself, I cannot see the connection, they will cost the earth and just look ghastly, Art ? there is nothing more graceful than a tree, maybe a Willow or a Silver Birch, to show the solidarity of the people who have their roots in Catford.
March 4th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
The man from Catford suggests a new cat perhaps, i think that could work but how about a cat covered in faces of lewisham people ? or kids from catford? or lewisham borough landmarks?
The thing is where did they drag these things up from? they dont represent catford in any way shape or form. And i go to Catford everyday.
Peg i like the idea of a tree/trees but they would probably not fair so well amongst the cars exhaust pipes.
How about a tree with cat shaped benches around it? ;0)
Full of ideas me.
March 4th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
You would have thought that they could have split the £40 grand and let secondary school kids have a go at designing something and the schools could have benefited from the cash.
March 5th, 2008 at 7:35 am
i emailed the deputy mayor, heidi alexander, last night
“Hello Heidi,
I have just visited Laurence house to look at the 4 contenders for the proposed sculpture on the Catford Road.
A couple of things came to mind when looking through them which i’d like to raise with you
1. None of the artists appear to have any connection with the area whatsoever (only two of them even mention having visited the place), and i think to an extent that comes through in each of the pieces - they all look like something that has been a conception in the artist’s mind for sometime and an accompanying blurb has been rustled up to try to connect the piece with the community (a lot of the rhetoric seems like it could be applied to any town or place in britain). I would have hoped that the council would have used this as a chance to give an opportunity to local artists to come up with something which would have perhaps had more resonance with the area. Additionally it would have been nice to see the £40,000 that’s available from the council to the winning artist to create the sculpture being spent locally and been used towards encouraging local artists in the area
2.The location of the proposed sculpture is currently the fenced off area in the middle of the road between the broadway theatre and laurence house. at present it’s inaccessible to pedestrians and surrounded by roads at all sides. This area is however, in accordance with the catford town centre action plan, due to be made a fully pedestrianised area if the rerouting of the south circular behind laurence house goes ahead. This means that the potential sculptures at present have been designed predominantly for a landscape that is due to change quite radically over the next few years, and therefore it seems to be jumping the gun a bit commissioning 40 grand bits of art to go in a location that will be completely transformed in the near future
Looking through the comments book i was pleased to see that a lot of people had left comments expressing no desire for any of the pieces on offer, saying that the money should be spent on, milford towers, more affordable housing, public toilets,local education services, a public clock, some nice trees, keeping the hospital fully open, providing better child care facilities, or better provision for elderly care, etc.. etc..
I also would like to point out what i think is a very poor consultation approach. the opportunities open for the public to actually input into the process seem to have ben kept to a minimum - the consultation period ran for only 9 days, and despite information being given about the consultation on the council’s website, no information or pictures about any of the potential sculpture pieces have been provided on their website, neither was any information about the consultation or the sculptures contained in the latest edition of Lewisham Life, our so called guide to what’s going on in the borough.
I would urge you to reconsider choosing any of the four options and instead open up the competition to include either local artists or the involvement of children from local schools. If this is a sculpture for the people of Catford, then it’s only fair that people with roots within the community are given a much greater part to play in the creation of the thing.
Best Regards
Ross ”
got a reply 7 minutes after sending it, saying she will discuss the points raised with councillors and get back to me ’shortly’
March 6th, 2008 at 7:10 am
I agree it seems like a very poor consultation, i wouldnt have know about it if it wasnt for blogs. Something tells me that despite what anyone of us wants they will press on with the original four.
March 7th, 2008 at 12:17 am
bang on their kate
to her credit, heidi emailed me back today with a fairly detailed reply to my email
“Dear Ross
Further to our email exchange earlier this week, I have now had chance to discuss your concerns with council officers. Whilst I understand some of your worries, I am afraid I am not convinced that we should re-open the competition. You raised a number of points in your email, which I will address in turn:
1/ Local Artists
The commission has undergone a standard selection process used by Creative Lewisham Agency. Information about the commission was advertised both nationally and locally, and expressions of interest sought. We received around 20 expressions of interest, of which none were from the Lewisham area. While we are disappointed that no local artists came forward, we undertook a fair and open process to attract artists to apply. The 20 expressions of interest were shortlisted to the four artists who were then asked to come up with outline proposals for the exhibition. These four artists were chosen on their ability and experience to deliver such a high-profile piece of work, suitability for the site, willingness to engage with the community and technical and maintenance issues. It is perhaps worth reiterating that the designs in the exhibition are outline designs - the chosen artist will work up more detailed proposals and will be required to undertake community engagement, most probably through an educational project with local schools.
2/ Location of Sculpture
The sculpture commission is designed as a start to the many regeneration plans for Catford. The commission brief given to the artists explained the situation with the south circular road possibly being re-routed behind Laurence House. The artists were asked to come up with a sculpture design which could be moved to form the centre of the new public square being proposed should the re-routing happen. As you point out, the chosen site is inaccessible to the public and therefore the sculpture will need to make a bold statement to passer-bys in vehicles and on foot. This issue will be taken into consideration when a panel meets on the 17 March to select the design which should go forward. The panel includes the Rushey Green ward councillors.
3/ Comments from the Exhibition
The sculpture is being funded from the Rushey Green Renewal Area (RGRA) programme which is in its last year of funding. This is a capital fund to improve the private housing stock and streetscape of the Rushey Green area. Public art falls under the objectives of the programme. This funding pot is ring fenced for specific projects and therefore the money cannot be spent on other initiatives such as those which you make reference to in your email.
4/ Consultation
The exhibition received coverage in the local press, and was advertised on the Council’s web page, as well as on a local blog page. Your concerns about the level of consultation and the way in which it was advertised have been noted and the Regeneration team will take them on board for the future.
I hope this information is of interest to you and I am sorry I do not agree with you about the need to re-run the process to date.
Regards
Heidi”
March 7th, 2008 at 12:17 am
to which i replied
“Hello Heidi,
First of all, thank you very much for your very prompt & detailed response to this.
While i did not doubt for a moment that the chosen route will be reconsidered, i still feel that it is very important to point out the quite considerable backlash that i’ve noticed against these proposed pieces, and i think that it’s not just the specifics of the pieces themselves (which on the whole, the opinion has been that they are quite frankly, rubbish, and bear little actual connection or empathy, directly or metaphorically, with the community that they are supposed to be done in the name off), but indeed the overall process itself which seems to have given little regard for the wishes, hopes & desires of the local community
Re your points:
1. Local Artists
in regards to advertising the commission locally, are you able to divulge what routes were explored to publicise & promote the commission to artists based in the local community (i.e. were any specific initiatives targeted purely at local artists?)
2. Location of Sculpture
It’s good to know that the sculpture will be easily relocated, and hopefully suited to any new location. In regards to the panel that will meet to decide on the selection, will this panel be made up of directly elected councilors? and will minutes of the meeting be made available to the public?
3. Comments from exhibition
I appreciate the difficulties of pots of money being made available to specific purposes, and i guess this is not the appropriate place to discuss these wider issues. I would like to point out however, that i think it’s quite inappropriate for public money to be used to improve the private housing stock, especially in an area immediately adjacent to estates like milford towers, of which i would say are far more in need of improvement expenditure. Are you able to comment further on why and how it was decided that this would be an appropriate use of public money (i.e. the improvement of privately owned housing stock)?
4. Consultation
I was surprised to find out that this has been covered in the local press, I usually read both the newsshopper and the lewisham mercury each week, and can’t remember seeing anything about it in either of these titles. I also did a search on their websites for any articles relating to this, however that returned no relevant results (as did a wider search on google). Can you advise which local press the consultation story was covered in? Over and above the local press, a reliance upon just putting a notification on the council’s website (one which contained no pictures or information about any of the proposed pieces), seems to me to be a fairly naive way of conducting a consultation process. A reliance on this form, first of all excludes a fairly large proportion of people who don’t have regular access to the internet, and further more even for those who do have regular access, i can’t imagine that they check the lewisham council website religiously each day for news items like this (or indeed a local blog). I would have thought the consultation process could have at least stretched to some public notices, leaflets, posters around the wider catford area, which would have enabled a wider section of the community to at least be aware of the consultation process, and at least create the impression that the community could be involved (albeit on a severely limited basis, given the all or nothing approach to the 4 selected pieces)
Anyway, thank you very much for engaging with me on this matter
Best Regards
Ross”
March 11th, 2008 at 8:14 am
Pictures of the sculptures appeared in the South London Press on Tuesday March 4th, consultation ended March 5th!
I don’t recall the consultation or pictures appearing in The Mercury or News Shopper.
March 11th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
There could be a sculpture of a group of cows (like Milton Keynes concrete cows) to signify the origin of the name Catford (Cattle-ford).
What Catford really needs though is a new shopping centre. The current one is ugly and unwelcoming. Also Eros house should be delisted so that it could be demolished and something better (a landmark building), by a top architect, could be built instead.
March 20th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
still no reply from my mail dated the 7th of March, nearly two weeks now….
March 29th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
I find it odd that the £40k will be coming from the Rushey Green Renewal Fund which as far as I can see has done quite a good job - not quite the Home Zone anticipated at the outset following on from models in the Low Countries. A few years ago there were plans to plant trees in the residential roads of Rushey Green but this has never happened. I remember speaking to someone at Lewisham about this and he was very excited at the prospect of greening the Rushey Green environs but he was moved on as was another officer at Lewisham who was very committed. Lewisham has a poor track record compared to other London boroughs in pursuing grants that are available - DCMS, HLF, LDA, S106 with Countryside or what about Banksy or the other artists who sold their works for a political party donating £40k (10p to me) to come up with something that reflects Catford.
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:38 pm
received a reply to my letter above from Malcolm Smith - executive director for regeneration via Heidi the other day
————–
Thank you for your further enquiry regarding Catford Sculpture. For ease of reference I will answer the point in the order that they were raised.
1. Local Artists
Ben Eastop who is project managing the commission is overseas at present and therefore we do not have the full detail of where and how the commission was advertised. However, I can confirm that the commission was advertised in the AN magazine, the standard magazine for all artists (national and local) looking for commissions. In addition it was advertised in Creative Lewisham’s e-newsletter which is received by a number of local artists. Ben Eastop also brought the commission to the attention of some local artists known to Creative Lewisham Agency.
2. Location of Sculpture
The panel which will decide the final artist is made up of all three directly elected Councillors, a local resident, the Catford Town Centre Manager, Ben Eastop, and a representative from the Arts Service. Minutes of the meeting will be available to anyone who requests them.
3. Comments from exhibition
The Rushey Green Renewal Area programme in now in it’s penultimate year of a 10-year programme. Based upon the findings of a Neighbourhood Renewal Assessment, it was agreed in 2000 by Executive Committee to address the issues identified in the NRA.
During this programme, Group Repair and environmental works were identified to residential properties within the ward. Residents were invited to sign up to the scheme by meeting a 25% cost of the works with the council meeting the rest.
These are external repairs to the fabric of the buildings and not Decent Homes works, which has been the main focus of the council’s Housing Investment Programme (estimated at over £200m in the last 4 years). Additionally, the council already has a policy of providing financial support for private sector stock through a range of grants and loans through its Private Sector Housing Unit - so there is a precedent of supporting borough residents in this area.
4. Consultation
Coverage of the exhibition in the local press appeared in The Mercury on the 27th February (see attached) and also the South London Press on the 4th (We do not have scan of this article available).
Yours sincerely
Malcolm Smith
Executive Director for Regeneration
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:39 pm
the following day however i also received an email from councilor Peggy Fitzsimons which made for interesting reading, both for what she said about it and the inference that heidi agreed with her as well
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Hi Ross
sorry for my delay in responding but my e-mail has been down.
I have been to see the display and I think that to put any one of these sculptures outside the Town Hall would be a disaster.
I totally agree with Heidi and I feel we should be doing better things with this sort of funding,many ideas come to mind.
Regards
Peggy
April 6th, 2008 at 8:16 am
anyone got any idea which one was selected in the end, the original news report on the council’s website said the ‘winner’ would be selected on 17th March, but three weeks on there’s still no mention of it on their website
April 8th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
“Origin of The Secret Two” won the competition, but it doesn’t seem to have been announced publicly.
Wonder if the council are having second thoughts.
April 9th, 2008 at 7:05 am
i was told the minutes of the selection meeting would be made available to the public - two councilors who i believe were attending that meeting have already said in communication with here that they didn’t like any of them, so will be interesting to see what was said at the meeting
February 28th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Delist and demolish Eros House? Now, hang on a minute, James, 67 privately renting households call it home. Where are we going to go?! We can’t all afford to rent nice conversion flats on Canada Avenue…