Mark Wallinger's horse design
One of the public’s favourite designs for the giant £2 million public artwork at Ebbsfleet has been dumped, while one of the least popular has been put onto the shortlist announced this week.
Judges have named a shortlist of three designs by Daniel Buren, Richard Deacon and Mark Wallinger, that have been selected for further development.
But the confidential results of a massive public consultation exercise show that a design by Christopher Le Brun, backed by 49 per cent of the public who made comments on his proposal, failed to make it through to the next round of the selection process.
A design by Rachel Whiteread, who grew up in Ebbsfleet, was also dropped by judges.
However, Richard Deacon’s design, which was backed by only 14 per cent of people, was shortlisted by the selection panel lead chaired by the director of Margate’s Turner Contemporary, Victoria Pomery.
The geometrical design would be a painted steel latticework outlining a “stack” of 26 differently shaped polyhedrons, which he describes as a “nest”.
It is based on a cairn, which is a pile of stones that were historically used to mark routes and burial sites.
The fact that there would be 26 “modules” is to reflect that there are 26 letters of the alphabet because Mr Deacon sees writing as the cornerstone of western culture.
But his inspiration seems to have been lost on some of the public, one of whom described the work as “take three Curly Wurlys and apply gentle heat. Freeze and put into a display case.”
More than 40,000 shoppers at Bluewater took part in the three-month consultation exercise held between May and August. A further 10,000 people submitted their comments via the internet.
The confidential results of the consultation exercise for the iconic sculpture to stand at Springhead Park looking out over Ebbsfleet Valley and the Thames Estuary to be have been seen exclusively by Kent on Sunday.
Also part of the consultation was an innovative arts project with five schools in the area who produced a series of short films inspired by the artwork proposals.
The giant Ebbsfleet Landmark Project is being billed as the UK’s largest and most significant public art commission since Antony Gormley’s Angel of the North, and will be an “enduring symbol of the new development of Ebbsfleet Valley and Ebbsfleet International station”.
Eurostar, Land Securities and London & Continental Railways, the company behind High Speed 1 which will provide fast rail links between London and Kent next year, have organised the project.
Mark Wallinger’s design for a white horse was the early favourite to win the commission, though Kent County Council has been trying to organise opposition to the design, claiming a prancing Invita style design would be more appropriate.
There have also been concerns that the Turner Prize winner’s giant steel structure may be impossible to build and prohibitively expensive.
The current insiders’ hot favourite is French conceptual artist Daniel Buren who is proposing what he calls a ‘signal’ –a tower made of five stacked cubes containing a vertical laser beam that will reach indefinitely into the sky.
Wallinger and Buren were both backed by 56 per cent of the public.
Announcing the shortlist this week Ms Pomery said: “The panel was very excited by all the submissions and has decided to take three forward for further development before making a final decision.
“ We have asked Mark, Daniel and Richard to refine their proposals and to explore the engineering and cost feasibility in more detail. Our aim is to meet again in January to review their work in the light of this information.”
While no-one was prepared to discuss the confidential report, chairman of the Ebbsfleet Landmark Project, Stephen Jordan said: “With such an outstanding range of proposals, it’s right that we now look carefully at the practical delivery of each and explore further funding options.
“After all, this commission will not just be here for years but for generations to come. With over 40,000 people commenting on the proposals at the Bluewater exhibition, this has not only been a monumental consultation exercise but one that has proved extremely useful and constructive.”
When asked the point of the consultation when the public do not get to chose a final work, a spokesman for the Ebbsfleet Landmark Project said: “The process has been very successful in engaging many thousands of people in the region and outside in the process and has amply demonstrated the interest people have in public art.
“We did not seek a statistically significant outcome but a snapshot of views.”
POSTED: 05/10/2008 10:00:00
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