Context

In order to capture the full potential for this proposed development and for the Civic Offices in particular, the Council appointed a lead artist to create a strategy for the involvement of art and artists within the scheme, and to propose means by which it could be implemented. The role included identifying opportunities for new works (including a piece in response to the Reading Declaration) and the relocation of existing works such as the ‘Cartwheeling Boys’ and the John Piper tapestries in the current Kennet Room. Following an interview process, the internationally renowned artist, Simon Faithfull, was appointed. Now based in London and Berlin, Simon was actually born near Reading and spent his formative years in the town. He therefore has strong connections to the town and was keen to create a proposal that connects to the history and values of the town as well as to its exciting future.

Project

Simon Faithfull's thinking about how to integrate art into a new civic centre very much stems from his experience of the town over the years. From his time growing up just outside Reading and his teenage years spent in Reading’s ‘city’ lights, Simon already had a good understanding of Reading as town. After moving to London Simon returned to study at Reading University in 1997 and found that Reading was already a transformed town - having more confidence in its identity and displaying much more vitality both culturally and economically. Simon Faithfull’s early work on this project has involved reacquainting himself with Reading, talking to the residents of town, and researching what Reading means to its inhabitants. In response to the question ‘What are you most proud of about Reading?’ several people answered ‘diversity’, but this question generally elicited somewhat banal answers. A more interesting question was ‘If someone was thinking about moving to Reading what would you say was its selling point?’. Half joking, almost uniformly people replied that ‘Reading is easy to get out of’. This might seem a negative statement at first glance but actually this seems to be at the core of what it is that makes Reading a so much more vital, interesting and confident town to the one that Simon grew up just outside.

Reading as a city is at the centre of a flow of people, traffic, ideas and information. People cherish the fact that Reading is so well connected to the rest of the world in a number of ways. Reading’s significance is that it is a kind of ‘nexus’ or hub of the swirl of activity that flows around the South East of England. It is this dynamic flux that attracts many people to live and work here and, for others, a town to pass through as an important interconnecting centre linking London to the Thames Valley, South Wales and the North.  Reading is a town with a constant flow of people, travelling in and out, staying, working, living, and moving on.  Reading is also at the centre of the flow of information around the country – many hi-tech, information companies have chosen Reading as their base with its good access to the capital and to two of the country’s main airports.

The future of the civic area development is still under consideration. However, proposals for the public art strategy for this area  and suggestions for particular works within a new Civic Centre building are informed by Simon’s thinking about Reading and the idea of ‘Flow’.

Artist

Simon Faithfull was born in Oxfordshire and studied art at Central St Martins and Reading University.  His practice takes a variety of forms - ranging from video filmmaking, to digital drawing projects, installation work and writing. Often making artwork that arises out of journeys, Simon’s practice explores how things are interconnected through time and space, how we perceive the shifting world around us and how distance can now be felt as a tangible presence. Recent projects have included a video-work that records the journey of a domestic chair as it is carried to the edge of space (commissioned by Arts Catalyst), a drawing project sending back live digital drawings from a two month journey to Antarctica (an Arts Council International Fellowship with British Antarctic Survey) and an animated film developed from drawings made on a mundane walk out of London along the A13 trunk road (Channel 4 commission with Arts Council).  Recent exhibitions have included solo shows in Parker’s Box (New York), Stills (Edinburgh) and Cell (London) with forthcoming solo shows in Berlin and Paris. Simon Faithfull also exhibited at 2007 Venice Biennale.