Marion Coutts has developed two strands to her working method on this project. The first has grown out of an ongoing dialogue with the architects, landscape architects and developers and allows for subtle contributions to many aspects of the site design. The second proposes ways in which artworks might be integrated into the overall scheme. The ideas for both have developed out of an initial paper entitled ‘Mirror Mirror’ which outlines the theme of reflection and repetition. This paper was presented by the artist at workshop sessions for RBC officers and councillors. In July Marion Coutts gave a public talk about her work at Reading Town Hall during which she introduced some of the ideas for Chatham Place.
Over recent months Coutts’ conversations with the design teams have taken in issues of colour, surfaces, materials, patterning and motifs. The extensive use of reflective metal cladding throughout the site could be seen as a response to her early thoughts on reflective surfaces offering an effective means of de-materialising large expanses of building. On the collaborative front, Coutts has undertaken some interesting research into colour palettes found in Victorian houses and gardens adjacent to the site. These colours could be utilised in the coloured glass panels forming part of the private residential building façade – the exact colours to be conditioned under the planning consent. She has also made proposals (which are currently being worked up in more detail) which could be relevant for the treatment of part of the ground floor elevation along Alfred Street. These proposals refer to the ideas of reflection and repetition and use alternate vertical strips of reflective metal, pale wood and colour to draw passers-by into the structure of the building and create a sequence of clipped animations as pedestrians walk along the street.
Stand Alone Artworks
Two internally lit columns are the first of a number of works which the artist will create for the Chatham Place Development.
• The idea for making an artwork based on Morris Columns derives from pre-existing street columns, very characteristic of many major European cities - Paris, Berlin. The Reading columns are simple in form, original in tone and distinctly urban.
• The artwork would consist of two bespoke, stainless steel and glass columns in Phase 1, with the option of others in Phase 2.
• The image on the columns represents an imaginary and impossible collection - of archive posters, flyers and other ephemera specific to Reading. It is a digital collage on a transparency - no paper posters are used. Because the artwork is fixed and will not change, it is a play on the nature of ephemera, solidifying the way the historical record of a place is very fluid, built up through layers and memories of events.
• All the images are sourced with the support and cooperation of various archives in Reading. Thanks in particular go to Matthew Williams at Reading Museum, Caroline Benson at the Museum of English Rural Life, the Typography department at Reading University, the local history department of Reading Library. Copyright issues were dealt with at an early stage and care was taken via the above organizations to discard any material possibly infringing copyright. This led of necessity to a certain narrowing of historical focus.
• Particular attention was given to original and eye-catching imagery or graphics, important events in the life of the town, posters highlighting the agricultural heritage of the Oxford Road area and unusual or more unofficial types of printed material. The piece uses as its medium the typography, colour, graphics, ingenuity and idiosyncracy of the existing material. It collapses all these styles and modes into one work. The columns are designed to stop at, look at and be read.
• The columns are illuminated from the inside, so look particularly bold at night. The piece has been developed in consultation with Woodhouse plc, leading manufacturers of bespoke street furniture. The image is protected by a glass cover and the piece is accessible for maintenance.
|
