Magic

Powdered- Liquid- Solid.

This is the bit I love the most about casting concrete. You have poured a liquid into a mould then 24 hours later that liquid has become as hard as rock. It is not until the shuttering has come off that you know what you have got. It is almost like a potter opening her kiln. This is the moment all the planning has gone into. So exciting. The textures realised and unexpected details achieved cannot be accomplished in any other way. So although you are as nervous as hell, and almost don’t want to pull the shuttering off, you can’t stop yourself from ripping it down.

Reinforcing

Obviously health and safety issues are always an important consideration with public art works so I consulted Bryan Redstone, a structural engineer from Exmouth, who very kindly gave me the advice to reinforce at every opportunity. Thank you Bryan for your much needed support of the Arts

The Hard Work Begins

All hands to the decks. Day of The Wedding so only crew available to help are family - Husband, father in law, children, plus a friend of my daughter. This is sold as great exercise and some extra pocket money. They work really hard all day while I direct and rush about getting more supplies. Major big thank you to Matthew, David, Jemima,Tasman and Peony Knight plus Curtis for good spirits under stressful conditions.

The stuttering only just managed to take the strain of the weight. Much propping and emergency fixing later, the deed was done

Shuttering Goes Up

In the picture above you can see the inner skin being put up. The horizontal strips of wood will create indentations in the cast concrete which will be used to support the 4 shelves inside the structure. I am filling in all the screw heads with clay from the surrounding land to stop them showing in the final work and make sure we can get them out!

Finally finished - ready for pouring the concrete in tomorrow.

Shuttering Ready to Go

All the shuttering work is packed up and ready to go down to Broomhill to be assembled. This has all been completed in the peace and quiet of my studio/barn because it requires total concentration. You are building the outer skin of what you want. It is the void that has to match your drawings not what you are building. Needless to say this can do your head in.

Foundations Laid

Foundations are all in place.

The site is a river meadow in a fairly steep valley so I needed to think carefully about drainage. The piece sits ½ a meter below the surface with steps leading the viewer down into the contained space. Without drainage this could end up filling with water which I don’t want. Because the water table is so high I made the decision to raise the sculpture, building a mound around it. That allowed me to achieve the fall I needed to keep water away from the interior of the piece. Having said that I still needed over 10 meters of pipe to guarantee this, so big thank you again to my sponsors Travis Perkins for their support.

As is often the case in art, this unexpected change in the design  has  benefitted the work by enhancing the qualities of memorial.

Other Artists putting up, taking down.

There has been a real buzz this week at the Broomhill prize site with several artists busy either taking down work from last year’s competition or putting up new work for this year. It has been great fun meeting each other; seeing what other artists are bring to the exhibition and what last year’s artist gained from taking part. All agree that it is a positive experience just spending time in such a creative space.

Here is a picture of one of the artists for 2011, Lee Odishaw, who was down from Wales for the weekend to see the site. He showed me some pictures of his completed work which look fantastic. Can’t wait to actually see the piece on site.  Oooops he's sideways, sorry Lee, I can't work out how to get you standing upright :)