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Sculpture Street (2017)

kcdk312

Updated: Jun 22, 2023

The annual Leigh Art trail, where local artists and makers showcase their work in shops, cafes and home studios, created an event called Sculpture Street. The event was the brainchild of local photographer Andrew Haines, who managed to get council permission to close an otherwise busy street to cars and other vehicles.


The event brief read as follows...


'Where do you live? What does it look like? Do you live alone or as part of a community? Sculpture Street is a community project to inspire, to encourage creativity. Does it make a difference to the rest of the world what we do to/in our front gardens? For a weekend, a quiet residential street is transformed. Local artists have created work to exhibit in front gardens for an event where the visual unity of the street is emphasised, bringing imagination alive.www.sculpturestreet.co.uk'


Most of the street residents allowed an artist to 'take over' their front garden for the weekend, displaying sculptures. An invite to exhibit was sent out to local artists, and I applied, outlining my proposal, which was a 7 ft tall sculpture called 'Goddess' in homage to Frida Kahlo, the Mexican painter.


The sculpture was made of mainly found and used objects, including pieces of wood, chicken wire, drink cans, bottle tops, glass beads, ribbons, piano keys and old iron chains.

Due to its final size, I built her in three pieces which I assemblaged on site. The chains were hanging off the waist and functioned as weights to keep the statue in place and prevent it from tumbling over.


The event was a great success, through the two days may people, including families with children, visited the street. Coloured chalks were laid out for anyone to draw/write on the street, and by the end of the Sunday it was covered. It was a scorching hot weekend, during the Sunday afternoon the wind picked up, to the extent where my Goddess got caught in a strong gust of wind, broke in two and the top half turned upside down, landing on the pavement outside the front.


Thankfully, none was harmed and she closed the weekend in spectacular Diva style.





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