Monday 28 January 2013

About The Lighthouse Installation



The Lighthouse installation
The Planter
(next to St Peters Church/M&S)
8th February
6-10pm


The installation is an experiment in interaction with the ever changing and erratic face of urban life - to which lights at night add both comfort and confusion - and to provide some semblance with the functions of lighthouses at sea. 

The public are asked to consider the ambivalence of meaning the lighthouse portrays both as a protector to those who are lost and as a symbol of danger. The artists Brenda Baxter and Loz Cliffe explore whether it's possible for the Lighthouse, in an urban setting, to offer direction to a place of safety and act as a warning of danger and uncertainty.

The Lighthouse’s positioning brings attention to the historical gateway of the city and offers the public a rare chance to participate in sharing whether it offers them protection or not.


Example of a lighthouse as part
of urban development
(not by the artists)
Kings Cross, London 2013
Photo © Brenda Baxter

“so that the monotonous fall of the waves on the beach, which for the most part beat a measured and soothing tattoo to her thoughts seemed consolingly to repeat over and over again ... murmured by nature, ‘I am guarding you—I am your support," but at other times suddenly and unexpectedly, especially when her mind raised itself slightly from the task actually in hand, had no such kindly meaning, but like a ghostly roll of drums remorsely beat the measure of life, made one think of the destruction of the island and its engulfment in the sea, and warned her whose day had slipped past in one quick doing after another that it was all ephemeral as a rainbow..." Virginia WoolfTo the Lighthouse

Sunday 27 January 2013

Urbanisland




A visual and written account of a journey to an island of buildings situated in the centre of Nottingham. Conversations are recalled through writing whilst surveillance and forensic encounters are captured with photography. The book is a poetic experience of a journey through a decaying urban landscape. It's a story of hopes and dreams buried in bricks and mortar and what is happenings with the passage of time.

Friday 18 January 2013

Nottingham Night Light


The Lighthouse
8th Feb 6-10pm
The Planter/ Albert Street
Outside St Peters Church NG1 7DB


City Council has this allocated this location for the Lighthouse - the car park was too inaccessible and no power. Loz Cliffe now working on the sound component. I have come up with a design using found objects.

The light will be provided by a 30W LED spotlight but whether its competes with urban lighting in the area is to be speculated. About to have to do a test run… will just have to get folks involved with concept in other ways. I want to add sound of foghorns and suspend some groundsheets from the trees to enclose the lighthouse and to cut out some lights from area and display a map of the island. We hope the groundsheets will sound like the sails of ship or the use of polythene sheeting to wrap the trees and create shrine of light.

And if it rains - well thats another story!

The Lighthouse
Nottingham Light Night
8th Feb 6-10pm
The Planter