Viva Big Art St.Helens!
Internationally renowned artist Jaume Plensa has accepted the commission to create a landmark new artwork in St.Helens as part of Channel 4’s Big Art Project.
Born in Barcelona, Jaume has exhibited all over the world and completed major commissions in Tokyo, Toronto, Germany, and the United States.
Jaume’s public artworks in the UK include a laser sculpture at the Baltic Arts Centre in Gateshead and, most recently, a spectacular new sculpted and illuminated glass dome for the BBC’s Broadcasting House HQ in London.
His most famous work is the “Crown Fountain” in the centre of Chicago. This features two 50-foot glass towers displaying twin digitised images of 1,000 Chicago citizens one at a time – water shoots out of the image of their mouths like giant electronic gargoyles to create the 232-foot long pool in between.
The Big Art Project is the UK’s largest ever community-led public art commissioning scheme and Channel 4’s most ambitious ever arts-related TV programme. This unique initiative involves the creation of seven new landmark public artworks across the UK being filmed by Carbon Media as part of a new prime time Channel 4 series going live in 2008.
The former Sutton Manor Colliery site in St.Helens was chosen thanks to its rich cultural resonance and highly visible location beside the busy M62 motorway midway between Manchester and Liverpool. The intention is for the artwork to not only symbolise the positive post-industrial transformation that St.Helens has undergone in recent years, but also to become a new regional icon for the North West at the gateway to Merseyside.
Artist Jaume Plensa commented: “My work is first and foremost about celebrating life and the human experience of standing in between past and present, present and future, knowledge and ignorance. I fell in love with this site in St.Helens as soon as I saw it! The spectacular setting, proud heritage, vision for the future, and the warmth, humour and passion of the former miners I have met are all truly inspirational. To have been invited to capture the essence, hopes, and aspirations of a whole community on this scale is a great honour but also an awesome responsibility.”
Cllr. Brian Spencer, the Leader of St.Helens Council stated: “As both Council Leader and someone who worked down Sutton Manor Colliery myself, I am delighted that an artist of the calibre and international standing of Jaume Plensa has accepted our commission. This landmark new artwork will not only put St.Helens on the map, but will also have a major positive impact on the rest of Merseyside and the North West in terms of the significant economic and cultural benefits it will bring”.
Channel 4’s Big Art Trust added: “The aim of the Big Art Project is to leave a lasting physical legacy, as well as to inspire local communities and promote a national debate about the impact of art on ordinary people’s lives. The stature of the artist, commitment of St.Helens Council, enthusiasm of the community, and prominence of the site, leave me in no doubt that the St.Helens project will achieve all of these aims in spades and produce compelling television in the process!”
Jaume Plensa will develop concepts and designs over the Summer in tandem with a local community involvement programme. These will be finalised in the Autumn, and construction will begin once planning permission is granted. The intention is for the new St.Helens artwork to be installed and unveiled in time for the launch of the Channel 4 TV series in May 2008, the year that neighbouring Liverpool is Europe’s Capital of Culture.
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art
