Public Art/Landscaping Commission Forum Development Bath

Location: Public Art/Landscaping Commission Forum Development Bath. Newbridge Road, Bath
The site of a former factory making timing equipment became the first Georgian style square to be built in Bath for over two hundred years. 'Forge Projects' (Robert Fearns and Angela Cockayne) were commissioned to develop the centre of the square as a recreational area and art space. Several sculptural elements were included - an interactive steel and bronze 'clock' surrounded by stones and granite block inscribed with text, an 'hourglass' built from stainless steel letters, and a group of random stone blocks inset with a steel lettered text piece. A boules court was included and planting, paving and railing work for which we used landscape architect assistance.
As with the Portishead project the requirements of the commission were for permanent work, durable and low maintenance. Whilst this precluded responses of a more transient nature, it offered the possibility of continuing my interest in the built environment and how much or little is necessary to provide an identity or sense of community. In this case I was particularly interested in notions of how space differs from place, the first being active and to do with how place is defined through movement and use.
Two further commissions are underway, at the former Clarks shoe factory site in Street where we are lead artists for a ten year project building a landmark sustainable housing development, and at Old Sarum in Salisbury where another large housing development will inevitably involve archaeological aspects from the Neolithic and Bronze Ages.