Creating Community Artwork at the New Stockingfield Bridge

We’re excited to announce a new project for BOOM! We will be leading one of eight community artwork projects to bring life to the public space around the new Stockingfield Bridge in North Glasgow.

We're going to make a series of four paving slabs, cast with designs inspired by the seasonal change of the natural environment surrounding the canal.

Our project is inspired by the history of the area as well as the canal and the environment: the industrial heritage of the ironworks and earlier ironstone pits.  As regular users of the canal area, we are keenly aware of the beauty and change in the natural environment throughout the year, as well as the litter that sadly accumulates there.  Each slab would be inspired by a season: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, with designs reflecting the seasonal plantlife at those times.  By placing the slabs at different points around the new bridge area, the artwork in its totality would be discoverable only by exploration. 

We would like our artwork to be of the community, and for the community to feel ownership and connection to its creation.  To this end, we'll be holding two sets of community activities which will underpin the work: two community litterpicks, and four art workshops.   

The litterpicks will engage local people in the conservation of the area, and we will look to recover a small amount of metal (such as cans) from the waste to be melted down (in a nod to the ironworking history of the area) and incorporated into the final slabs. 

One of our artists (Barry Neeson) will make a small-scale forge to melt down the metal, which then will be incorporated into the final pieces.  

Taking the materials and designs from the community engagement phase, artist Pearl Kinnear would work on the design and relief casting of the final pieces.

Watch this space for more information on how to get involved in upcoming drawing workshops, which will be led by Danielle Banks in late November and early December.

You can read more about the community artwork projects here, part of the new Stockingfield Bridge project being delivered by Scottish Canals with funding from Sustrans, and the Glasgow City Council Vacant Derelict Land Fund.

Image credit - Rosser1954, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons