In the first IST blog, I mentioned how the National Lottery
Assessor, Mike Sixsmith, who recommended we receive the funding to build the
trail, observed that we hadn’t bid for enough money to achieve the scale of its
ambition. My previous experience had been with projects of up to about £15,000.
When describing the aim of commissioning internationally significant artworks
which would put IST on the world stage, I had guessed that such commissions
would cost about £80,000. Mike and I were standing in Ramsbottom Market Square
which was one of the highest profile sites on the whole trail. He really like
the site and thought it had massive potential for a sculpture but, like with
other key sites, he observed that such a location would need nearer to
£250,000. It was this conversation that prompted the significant increase in
the final lottery grant referred to in the last blog.
Because of the high visibility of the sculpture, we created
a selection panel of local councillors and organisations supported by arts
expertise. A long list of 27 artists was created by the arts consultant Bev
Bytheway and the panel narrowed it down to a shortlist of 5. One withdrew. So
the remaining four submitted proposals. The London-based sculptor Ed Allington
was very keen to win the commission – as I recall submitting 3 or 4 possible
designs. The panel chose the Tilted Vase.
The Vase draws its inspiration from the legacy of the
Industrial Revolution in the valley. The classical shape reflects the Georgian
architecture of the square, while the manufacture of it points to industrial heritage,
built in sections and bolted together to look like a machine or the steam
engines operating on the railway a few hundred years away. Bronze and Steel.
As often happens with public art, a controversy followed. The
design hadn’t even been released when an angry local person decided that a
sculpture was a bad idea. The Square's current condition was a couple of scraggy rose
bush plots and a small graffitied shelter at the back used by drunks and young
people with nowhere to go. The angry person started a petition against ‘the’
sculpture and got 500 signatures in a week. But, except for the panel, no-one
had seen the design, so it was a petition against sculpture on principle.
Next phase was a public consultation, which on the evidence of the petition we
expected to be bloody. A public meeting was convened at the Grant Arms pub
which overlooks the site. On the evening I chaired the meeting (with some trepidation
expecting hostility). Ed Allington sat beside me. I recognised faces in the 50+
audience that were vocal opponents of the sculpture. The event started, I
introduced the plans for the Sculpture Trail and this and other sculptures proposed
for Ramsbottom; Ed introduced his practice, other commissions and then explained
the design. Then I threw it open to questions from the audience. A woman stood
up and said: ‘Well, I like it. Ramsbottom needs this to make the centre of the
town attractive to visitors’. This was a shock; even more shocking was that the
next and the next stood up and said the same thing. It turned out that the vast
majority of Ramsbottom actually liked and looked forward to the sculpture being
installed! After that, the petition was never mentioned again.
A few months later, Ed was ready to install. The converging roads
to Market Square were closed (quite a big disruption to local traffic), cranes manoeuvred
into place, barriers, police, crowds, men in hard hats. The huge bronze arrived
on a flat-bed truck. Straps were attached and the crane lifted it into the air –
a magnificent sight. It hovered over the foundations, ready to be lowered, when
one of the Council engineers asked Ed: ‘when did you pour the concrete into the
foundations?’ At this point all hell broke loose. Ed’s team had poured the concrete
2 weeks before; within this was located a chemical bolt system which would bond
the sculpture immovably to the ground. But technically the chemical only works
if the concrete is 3 weeks old or more. At this a general chaos erupted. It couldn’t
be installed. I got a phonecall from the then Chief Executive (my overall boss)
angrily wanting to know who was in line for sacking; the Lisson Gallery which
represented Ed rang threatening legal action against the Council for stopping
the installation. The vase was re-lowed onto its truck and driven away to a yard
for storage, everything was taken down, the crowd drifted away. Against a
background of recrimination, a disconsolate Ed and I ended up sitting in the Grants
Arms with beers. I told him that when it all came down to it, all he and I
wanted was for a great sculpture to be standing in Market Square, nothing else mattered, we should
ignore all the noise and just reschedule and get it right. And that’s we did. The
vase returned a few weeks later and was installed without incident. The site
works around it were completed and the water was turned on.
This project (my first really big commission) was a real
learning experience. The first lesson of public art I would say to would-be project
commissioners is never install a water feature. The issues of public health
& safety, freezing, children adding detergent to make it bubble, pumps, electric
supplies, etc., make it the most complex long-term maintenance commitment. As
it is, the vase has not poured water for about 5 years for technical reasons;
but these are being sorted out specially to coincide with the 25th
Anniversary so it will be turned on this Spring. Sadly, Ed Allington died last September.
