Battle Library, Oxford Road

Context

Battle was the first library to be built by Reading Borough Council. Funded in part by Andrew Carnegie it has provided a unique landmark for the local community since 1908 and is a Grade II listed building. Battle has always played an important part in the lives of local residents, serving as a hospital in World War I and as an air raid depot in World War II.

Following a £1.46million grant from the Big Lottery Fund, the library has recently been extensively refurbished, and now provides enhanced services including access to computers, a children's storytelling area and a community garden. It is the venue for a great variety of activities including English for Speakers of Other Languages, Job Seeking Advice and Baby and Breastfeeding Advice clinics.

Battle Library is in the heart of the Oxford Road, one of the most diverse neighbourhoods in Reading - an arterial route into the town, surrounded by densely populated Victorian terraces. The Oxford Road itself is characterised by a predominance of small, speciality shops which reflect the cultural makeup of the area - older residents, households with young children, established African Caribbean and Asian communities and new immigrant communities from Eastern Europe.

This commission has been made possible with funding from Tesco Stores Ltd as part of their development of the Portman Road site. It will managed by Artists in the City as part of Reading Borough Council's public art programme, and will be overseen by a Working Party comprising local authority councillors and officers. 

Project

The artist is invited to propose a work that will be located within the internal or external spaces of Battle Library. There are no restrictions on the medium in which the final work will be produced except that it should respond to the social, cultural and historic context of the Library, as well as to its physical site. Public engagement will be a key focus for this project and the artist has remarked that he would like the work 'to become an animated and vivid record, not a dry archive, but a compelling visual and aural legacy that would resonate with the library's past, present and future users'. Like the myriad of information contained within Battle Library's books themselves, so the resulting project will be focused on opening up the richness of the people that use it.

Artist

Dryden Goodwin is one of the UK's leading artists. In addition to exhibitions and residencies throughout Europe and North America, he has also undertaken a number of acclaimed public art commissions where community engagement has been at the core of the work.

In 2008 he created a permanent work for the new Cabot Circus development in the centre of Bristol. The final form of the work was 12 chromed etched copper plates, installed onto a curved polished slate wall. Each plate featured a drawn portrait of individuals from across the vast spectrum of workers engaged in the construction of the centre, including architects, bricklayers and canteen staff.

London Underground commissioned Dryden Goodwin to create 'Linear'. This vast portrait of staff on the Jubilee Line consists of 60 drawings and 60 films of the drawings being made. For one year from January 2010 the project will be disseminated across the London Underground on poster sites, video screens, billboards, illuminated displays, leaflets, a dedicated website and a publication. 'Linear' presents a social and personal history of this community of workers, evoking a sense of both a physical and emotional mapping of the Jubilee Line.

Dryden Goodwin lives and works in London where he is a Lecturer at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London.

Further information www.drydengoodwin.com