A SUMMARY OF THE YEAR - 2022
At our first studio gathering of 2023 I asked, ‘what did we actually achieve this last year?’ Prompting me to reflect on all the work completed and hopes going forward in this quick summary of the year.
I was quickly reminded of the wonderfully colourful X-Ray Specs, and installing them in Daresbury Sci-tech park in February in a snow storm. But the year had already began in earnest, with the rush to complete the foundry patterns for Chester Cathedral’s ‘Pilgrim Porch’ before the end of January. Chris Brammall was anxious to fabricate the sections that needed casting at Meighs foundry in Stoke, in time for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations over the spring bank holiday.
At the end of January, Lorraine & I were thrilled to travel to Maryland USA to attend the wedding of our youngest son Isaac to his beloved Lois. Happy Days!
In February, a series of public consultations were held in the five proposed locations of the Bosworth 1485 Sculpture Trail. Life-size mock-ups were erected with all of the many stakeholders in attendance.
Calm before the storm
A New Order
The Storm Breaks
The Healing
Piecing together the past
Early June saw the celebrations of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. The ‘Pilgrim Porch’ was successfully installed, and the doors hung just in time, a significant achievement by everyone involved, especially the team from CB Arts Ltd.
As part of this ambitious project an invitation had also been sent to every parish church and chaplaincy in the diocese of Chester, asking to contribute an image for a labyrinth design, to be encapsulated in the new glass doors. This mammoth task of curating 367 images was patiently undertaken by Lorraine & Lucy and completed with an image to represent each faithful community across the whole Diocese..
Also in June, we were pleased to finally install the first part of the RFA settings in Chatham docks, a project helping tell the story of this significant location. Incidental dockyard objects serve as seating and interpretive objects, celebrating the history of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.
For a summer exhibition in St Boniface church in Bunbury, I exhibited ‘Broken Bow’ an artwork created some years ago, that I’d been keen to present in a new way. We plan to exhibit this piece again this year.
In August, we had the first opportunity to visit and photograph (without heras fencing) our 2 carved stone sculptures, which form part of the Manor Royal Arts & Heritage trail in Crawley. Entitled ‘Tommorrow’ & ‘Yesterday’, it was encouraging to see them looking at home in their environment, that provides a much welcomed green space to walk or take a break.
Early September we installed the final 12 ‘Walking Together’ figures. A memorial to the 106 men killed in mining disasters at Markham Colliery in Derbyshire. The completion of this deeply moving 10 year project was celebrated by the many volunteers and families involved, at an event on the 12 October.
Later in September Lorraine & I were pleased to invest time restoring the ‘Water of Life’ sculpture in Chester Cathedral’s cloister garden, a much admired artwork completed in 1994. When I was finishing the installation all those years ago I was asked then if I was restoring it, and nearly thirty years later here we are, making it look new again. We were also pleased to launch the sale of a limited edition maquette of this artwork.
Another artwork we felt privileged to restore this year was Arthur Dooley’s ‘Mandela’. This sculpture was lost for over 50 years, and created by Arthur when Mandela was more a wanted terrorist, than international statesman. We were also very pleased to help restore Arthur’s very dramatic ‘Splitting the Atom’ sculpture installed in Daresbury research centre in 1971.
In November we installed ‘Living Landscapes’ a trail of 5 animal themed artworks in CityFields, Wakefield. Forged by Chris Brammall the corrugated animal shapes highlight the rich habitat of this post industrial green corridor.
Living Landscapes
Continuing the animal theme, Peter developed the initial maquettes for the much loved stone carved ‘sleeping animals’ in the ‘Apothecary’s Garden’ at UCLH Hospital London.
The year ended with days spent in the Darwen Terracotta factory, hand-pressing textile patterns into 45 bolts of fabric cast in clay. When fired & glazed they will form a series of 15 seating units, entitled ‘Global Patterns ’for the newly refurbished Rochdale Town Hall Square - watch this space.
So looking back, 2022 was a busy and productive year, and we are very thankful to all our partners and collaborators that enabled so much to happen. Let’s hope this coming year will be equally significant. We are especially looking forward to installing the terracotta seats in Rochdale and hopefully start to build the long awaited Bosworth 1485 sculpture trail.
Stephen Broadbent
Jan 2023