Transforming The Future Past by Heavy Object

WERK

Issue 0ne

WERK

Longbridge Public Art Project

Longbridge Public Art Project (LPAP) Artists-inResidence Text by Anneka French, January 2016

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Longbridge Public Art Project

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Longbridge Public Art Project

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Longbridge Public Art Project

How do you make sense of a place that has been transformed beyond almost all recognition in physical, economic, social and emotional terms? And what if it is still transforming before your eyes? How might a place move forward towards its future while holding sight of its past? These are the questions that the Longbridge Public Art Project (LPAP), conceived by WERK, has been exploring since it began in September 2012 with incredible support from a wide range of partners including regeneration specialists St. Modwen. Following the closure and demolition of the Longbridge car plant (1905-2005) and after a long fallow period, Longbridge is in the midst of a massive (468-acre) and unique suburban regeneration scheme. The creation of a town centre for the very first time, the re-location of Bournville College and the construction of large-scale retail units are bringing jobs and footfall to the area – but this is a place in flux, coming to terms with an entirely new identity. No single artist can hope to encapsulate one hundred years of history, let alone Longbridge’s current changes. WERK’s approach, therefore, has been to set up an artistin-residence framework within LPAP – openings for artists to embed themselves within the community over a much longer period of time than other public art projects might typically allow. As one of these artists, Stuart Whipps, notes – all art is public art; all art should be public artwork. Placing the public of Longbridge at the heart of the programme, and extended time for research and making work in Longbridge, allows each artist to get much closer to the core of the place and its population – its concerns, challenges and opportunities. Sculpture, collage, photography, drawing, and more performative walks and interventions have been presented for the past two years in public spaces, gallery exhibitions and as part of the Longbridge Light Festival. Workshops, talks, events and discussions allow for participation and the expansion of ideas. Collaborations between the WERK team, artists, community groups and Longbridge residents, including several key former plant employees who are involved with LPAP’s work on many levels, have been nurtured. It is in this exchange that the huge value of Longbridge’s heritage is being uncovered. LPAP is influencing Longbridge’s future narrative too. In some cases this has taken the form of artistic solutions to practical problems such as illuminating public walkways but as Longbridge is a place to which people have strong political and emotional connections, sensitivity is required at every step. This is living history. Cathy Wade, another artist-in-residence, has researched the physical remnants of Longbridge’s heritage. As she describes, creating work in Longbridge provides the potential for the place to retain its industrial past as well as the creation of new markers or gateways for people to pass through – more reasons to value Longbridge at a time of change and uncertainty. Working in conjunction with a wide range of partners, local groups and individuals, is allowing WERK to produce a project that is about the history, transformation, social capital and (re) creation of Longbridge. It is also a project, perhaps most importantly, for Longbridge.

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Stuart Whipps

Stuart Whipps has a long history of working with the Longbridge site. Since 2004 he has been making photographic works of the former car factory that have probed its changing physical, social and political nature, and his work as artist-in-residence at LPAP continues this research. In one of his most ambitious projects to date, Whipps is restoring a 1275GT Mini made at the plant in 1979 with the help of several ex-employees including Keith Woodfield, whose time and insight is proving invaluable. Many of the processes of stripping down and replacing or repairing the parts can be seen in a glass-fronted cabin-come-workshop in a car park in Longbridge town centre, as well as being featured in various galleries across the country as part of Whipps’ participation in the touring ‘British Art Show 8’ exhibition. The (dis)assembly of the Mini provides an echo of the cyclical changes experienced by Longbridge itself, for, after a long period of demolition and emptiness, new opportunities and facilities are emerging. The display of the car in various states of repair showcases the significance of this particular part of British manufacturing heritage to a wider audience. Individual car parts have been photographed upon removal from the chassis in a kind of ‘forensic examination’ of the car, as Whipps describes it. Supporting these parts, in the background of the photographs, are what appear to be ordinary sheets of newspaper. In fact, these pages depict political cartoons from the national press in the watershed year of 1979. In this year Longbridge trade unionist Derek Robinson, known as ‘Red Robbo’, was dismissed after almost forty years at the plant, shortly after Margaret Thatcher came into political power. She described Robinson as a ‘notorious agitator’. These political threads run throughout Whipps’ work for LPAP. Indeed, his project is titled ‘The Kipper and the Corpse’, a line that makes reference to a 1979 episode of ‘Fawlty Towers’ in which Basil Fawlty jokes about strikes at Longbridge. Near to the workshop where Whipps has been working will soon be a pedestrian tunnel under the A38 bridge. The artist has designed a number of permanently-sited artworks that will enhance this new public gateway for pedestrians and cyclists in Longbridge. Like Wade’s permanent works, Whipps’ designs will incorporate elements of Longbridge’s past. A chronological presentation of every body work paint colour produced at the plant will appear on steel barriers that will separate the tunnel archways from the River Rea, combined with an enlarged, distinctive hounds-tooth pattern used in the interior upholstery of cars manufactured at the plant. This will be a timeline of changing taste and aesthetics, manufactured with contemporary technologies and materials. A lighting system designed by Whipps within the tunnel will provide practical lighting while illuminating various key features of the historic structure.

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Cathy Wade

When Lord Herbert Austin visited the old print works in Longbridge on 4 November 1905, a leap of imagination was required – this was the site he had selected for the Longbridge car factory. Underpinning Cathy Wade’s ‘Star Map’, a permanent installation on the Longbridge site, are some of the intangible factors that brought Lord Austin to this particular part of southwest Birmingham. Rather than focus on the history of the plant per say, Wade’s sculpture is a carefully researched visualisation of the night sky over Longbridge, at its signature longitude and latitude, at the time of Lord Austin’s first visit to the site. Constructed from stainless steel, with constellations cut through to reveal points of light by Clifton Steel, a Digbethbased manufacturer, this is a monument to an auspicious moment. ‘Star Map’ echoes the flux, energy and power of machinery within the ever-changing face of the skies above us. Nearby, Wade has completed another project that re-thinks the future of public and private space in Longbridge, working closely with St. Modwen’s urban design team. Wade has created a planting and lighting system for the new town centre, whose ideas have come through the 2014 iteration of LPAP’s Longbridge Light Festival. Programmed lighting and a series of multi-stemmed birch trees have transformed a hard-landscaped space into one that can be explored. This is a work of art with a practical and social function that will subtly alter according to season, time of day and the natural growth of the plants. Wade’s vision is for this work to metaphorically and physically connect aspects from different moments in the timeline of Longbridge – to help pedestrians navigate the new walkways and publically accessible areas, and to offer an alternative, nuanced perspective of the current site development. Longbridge’s train station has played a vital role in its history. Its rail services were another key reason for Lord Austin’s selection of the site. In its heyday, thousands of workers would disembark trains arriving in Longbridge. The station – a key gateway to Longbridge – is also in the midst of redevelopment plans. Wade has been working alongside Northfield Ecocentre’s ‘Incredible Edible Longbridge’ initiative to devise a project for the station that aims to re-plant the station banks with wildflowers and cuttings donated by the community, including edible plants that can be harvested by the community. This living artwork will grow and alter like the planted town centre works, while making reference to ‘green wall’ sites at other stations and public buildings in Birmingham, including the recent Marks and Spencer green wall in Longbridge. This is no fixed monument but one with the capacity to mature, adapt and literally take root in its selected ground. A series of photographs taken by Wade of the station and other stations across the country shared via social media since early 2013 conceptually expand the site of Longbridge train station. These are creating new conversations about the value of the railway. Perhaps what is most important to Wade is keeping alive a sense of civic pride. Longbridge is a place where people live, work and socialise, and this has to be considered. Wade’s various projects draw together the history of the site, as well as its present developments and future changes. Through conversations at Greenlands Social Club and with other residents of Longbridge, her works offer a sensitive and organic approach to making art for and within such a complex physical and emotional place.

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Longbridge Public Art Project

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Stephen Burke

Photographer Stephen Burke has produced a series of large-scale portraits as part of his collaborative research project with artist Hannah Hull titled ‘Women of Longbridge’. This work offers an alternative perspective of the Longbridge site that pays particular attention to and is a recognition of the role played by women in the male-dominated car industry. Alongside re-balancing the historical recording of women within the design and manufacture of cars at Longbridge, the project looks toward its future. One of Burke’s goals has been to inspire young women – the future generation of Longbridge – through highlighting significant contributions and achievements of the past. Each of the five women involved in Burke’s project were formerly employed at the car plant at different points in time and within different roles. Their participation in ‘Women of Longbridge’ demonstrates the generous ongoing participation and warm welcome that LPAP artists and team have received from the local community over the last few years. Taken in Longbridge or in the women’s individual homes, the sitters’ portraits are powerful and intimate. The slightly wistful air of the photographs is undercut by a recollection of the realities of working with heavy industry, including the danger and difficulties of physical work. This balance between nostalgia for the past and a candid remembrance of it underlies much of LPAP’s work. Following their participation in the portrait sittings, each of the women were invited to workshops to discuss their involvement and to unpack their own stories of working and community life. Each had her own reasons for getting involved and some of the women brought their families with them, extending the personal and social histories discussed into familial histories to be remembered by younger generations. Burke’s own mother had been involved in marches against the closure of the plant, and in taking him along, he has his own connections to the people of Longbridge and to its recent past. Burke has discussed the importance of emotional connections to a place being formed not only by his own memories but also through experiences of his family. The ‘Women of Longbridge’ project was exhibited in the LPAP temporary space in October and November 2015, accompanied by collaborative work by Hannah Hull, whose interview transcripts with the women formed the other half of this particular artist-in-residence commission. Burke is looking to find a permanent home for his series of photographs in or close to Longbridge. With other artists and community collaborators, Burke has delivered a number of photography ‘walkshops’ for the public and alternative history walks across Longbridge. As well as encompassing aspects of the plant’s history, older historical narratives have been uncovered dating back as far as the English Civil War. These narratives stretch the historical and cultural context of the place beyond the immediate and highly dominant influence of the factory, allowing fresh perspectives to emerge. Burke is further working on an archival project on Longbridge as part of the future programming of LPAP and is LPAP’s Project Assistant.

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Longbridge Public Art Project

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Luke Perry

In addition to ongoing collaborative work with Redhawk Logistica, Luke Perry has developed a number of individual public artworks during his time in residence. Perry’s long family history of skilled industrial manufacture can be discerned in all of the work he makes. Perry’s primary research concern is not in the cars produced in Longbridge during the existence of the plant, but its working population – a community entirely dominated by the factory, that has the factory in its very being. One of Perry’s earliest LPAP projects was ‘Map’. ‘Map’ arose from interviews and conversations with ex-workers and with younger residents who have grown up with stories of the plant. It also came from a desire to visually map the enormous factory site. The result was an expanded and annotated drawing, made with the help of ex-factory worker and local resident John Baker, and Austin Sports & Social Club members. The map was exhibited at LPAP’s temporary space throughout 2014, and at approximately thirty-feet long, acted as an accessible stimulus for conversations and the recollection of personal memories. Attending the ‘Pride of Longbridge’ event further extended Perry’s intimate research into Longbridge’s living history. He made a series of colour photographs of residents holding slates inscribed with their reflections on how and why Longbridge is a source of pride. The series of portraits threw up surprising and touching stories about the significance of Longbridge – from a celebration of British manufacturing expertise to a man who met his future wife at the plant. The results are now significant records of emotional responses to place. These are important messages to remember when faced with huge loss, innumerable changes to the physical and social landscape, and what is, for many in Longbridge, an uncertain future. ‘Longbridge Street Signs’ was a commission from LPAP in which Perry developed and installed a series of steel road signs within the Longbridge area. The words on each sign are phrases taken from conversations with numerous former plant workers, again, like much of Perry’s public works, directly reflecting the thoughts, experiences and emotions of people from this particular place. One sign reads ‘I slept to the sound of the hammers’ – a particularly evocative statement about the audible and emotional reach of the plant. Perry’s series of fifteen signs are subjective and open to interpretation, acting as mediations on and interventions within the landscape. As this is the first time that Longbridge has ever had a town centre (though the plant has been described as a town in itself), a sense of place-making is an overarching objective of LPAP supported by many of the working processes of the artists in residence. It is significant that Perry manufactures each of his artworks himself, often using processes that have been used for multiple decades. This set of creative skills and knowledge connects his output directly to those of the Longbridge site. Perry’s working processes, as a maker of public artworks, consistently involve collaborations and discussions with communities. This supports opportunities for residents, such as those of Longbridge, to explore their own identities, in their own voices, while availing of the expertise of an artist in the creation of monuments to Longbridge’s varied legacies and to its future.

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Hannah Hull

Hannah Hull has developed a number of projects and interventions that explore Longbridge from a social viewpoint during the period of her residence, notably the Women of Longbridge project in collaboration with Burke. Hull’s starting point within her LPAP residency was the archival material held by Bournville College, now sited in Longbridge. With Quaker roots connected to the nearby Cadbury factory, the College’s archival documents tell a particularly political tale underpinned by education for ordinary working class people and for women. A student newspaper from the turn of the century that provided a voice for women has been used as source material to develop new texts with today’s female College students. What has surprised Hull is how many of the narratives and concerns of individuals are similar despite being separated by more than one hundred years. Creative writing workshops with College students and older women have facilitated discussions on feminism, fashion and relationships. Titled ‘Postcards from Bournville College’, Hull has produced a text-based artwork that has been distributed to residents sharing some of these women’s stories. The wax-sealed postcards offer advice to women across, as Hull describes it, this ‘collapsing of time’. Hull is also working on a project with musician Nigel Clark from the pop rock band Dodgy, who was employed at Longbridge car plant for four years. Together they are developing lyrics and music for a song looking toward Longbridge’s future via an accumulation and processing of real experiences. The music will be performed by local musicians and will eventually be distributed via a limited edition CD and online. Hull sees this project as allowing for a far deeper level of audience engagement, as her research is literally ‘embodied’ through the physical and emotional acts of singing and playing music. In another of Hull’s projects, she is exploring geographic and social boundaries by engaging with local businesses on the periphery of the new development. In collaboration with other artists such as Wade and Redhawk Logistica, Hull has visited small retailers – fish and chip shops and kebab houses, for instance – and offered her services as an artist for one day to these outlets. This generous and playful series of interventions has created conversations about creativity and art with people for whom this is not necessarily a part of daily life. Proprietors have revealed stories about drawing or other creative processes, have begun to think about art again for the first time in many years and some have asked Hull to complete specific tasks for them. As its manifestations and impacts are often extremely subtle – perhaps a change of perspective, a brief verbal exchange or the jogging of a memory – this has been a difficult project to document. Hull has described this approach as ‘social sculpture’. An interaction with people on a very personal level is at the heart of her ongoing practice.

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Juneau Projects

Birmingham City Council have designated Longbridge an ‘ITEC Park’ – an economic zone they feel best suited to delivering the information and communication services of the future. It is within this framework, and within the context of Longbridge’s extensive design and production heritage, that Juneau Projects’ ‘Digital Longbridge’ is being developed. Artists Philip Duckworth and Ben Sadler, working as Juneau Projects, bring together contemporary technologies with more traditional, handmade processes in almost all of their practice. Building up to the Longbridge Light Festival in 2016, they have held numerous workshops in the LPAP temporary project space and at other locations that tap into the wealth of ideas and skills embedded within Longbridge’s residents. At these workshops with groups of adults, young people and children – up to 200 people so far – the artists have invited participants to select a theme and design their own badges. The workshops have transformed hand drawn designs into cut plywood badges using a laser cutter. These shapes can be painted and decorated by hand but will also act as triggers for digital animations when scanned with an augmented reality app on a smart phone. At the Festival, these will be artworks to be worn, disseminated, seen, discussed and interacted with – public artworks on a far more intimate and personal scale than might usually be expected. The badges will be distributed freely. Juneau Projects hope that scanning other peoples’ badges and unlocking animations will create new conversations at the Festival and beyond. These badges look to the future of Longbridge – they have been designed and made by its residents, based on their interests and ideas. ‘Digital Longbridge’ is, in this way, providing a social and cultural snapshot of Longbridge – this is a live research project that explores the creativity of the community. It is additionally equipping people of all ages with new skills. The open source animation software is available online as a free download and laser cutting machinery, for instance, is often underused by schools and college groups that own it. The project gives people tools to explore new possibilities for creative making and new possibilities for Longbridge. The skills learnt reach much further than immediate participation in the ‘Digital Longbridge’ project. It has been a very natural thing for Juneau Projects to work with local residents, especially given the heritage of the area. Alongside the badge project, the artists are working with a group from the nearby St. John the Baptist Church who have a history of making decorative banners. Together they are exploring how laser cutting may be a useful process for these women within the creative works they are already producing for their community. Juneau Projects are increasingly interested in collaboration and have worked to balance giving people a sense of freedom when making and ownership over the objects they have made without this process being overwhelming. Giving people the chance to work with a whole production process – from design to finished object – is a hugely valuable opportunity with obvious parallels to Longbridge’s manufacturing heritage.

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Redhawk Logistica

All of Redhawk Logistica’s work as an LPAP artist-in-residence has come about through the contributions of more than one person – starting with a process of research facilitated through the participation of others. The resulting artworks are credited under the corporate name of Redhawk Logistica - an arts entity set up by Rob Hewitt in 2008. Redhawk Logistica began by facilitating a series of five ‘Collective Collages’ that explored various eras of car production at Longbridge, which were created with different groups of local residents via workshops at Austin Sports & Social Club and Northfield Library. The designs and methods of advertising used to promote models such as the Princess and the Metro were researched in these sessions, creating images of free association from which people could read personal, social and political narratives via the cars themselves. Redhawk Logistica mounted a series of temporary signs to public railings around Longbridge as part of their collaborative project with Hull offering businesses one-day signmaking services. These follow on from similar signs made and exhibited by Redhawk Logistica across the country over the past few years that critique political issues of place. These seemingly simple, text-based signs act as small interventions or interruptions into public spaces – perhaps making those that come across them think more closely about the identity of a place and the ways in which it might be navigated. ‘Goods In’ was a project conceived and made in collaboration with another of LPAP’s artists-in-residence, Perry. Situated in exterior locations around Longbridge at the time of Longbridge Light Festival in 2014, ‘Goods In’ utilised twenty wooden car engine crates – perhaps, on first glance, a factory delivery held up by thirty years. Each crate, however, featured images or illuminated letters of the alphabet. As sculptural modular units, Redhawk Logistica and Perry were able to position the crates in multiple configurations to form provocative or reflective words or phrases connected to the political and social threads that run throughout Longbridge. The word ‘pioneer’ was spelt, for example, outside Greenlands Social Club, while crates spelling the words ‘a new power’ were positioned outside the new town centre Sainsburys. Stacked in a tower formation in the car park of Bournville College were the words ‘stop the clock’– a reference not only to the ‘golden’ point in time that heritage projects often like to lock on to, but also to working hours and human labour, both past and present. Redhawk Logistica is additionally working on an ambitious project alongside Perry to create a new permanent sculptural work for the A38 roundabout, a major commuter gateway to and from the south west of the city. The sculpture on this highly visible site, synonymous with picket lines of Longbridge’s past, will reference industrial production at Longbridge. Workshops with local residents have started to inform its design. Developing a large sculptural work that reflects Longbridge’s influence and relevance is a hugely challenging undertaking and extra sensitivity will be made toward the historical and political significance of the site and subject. Redhawk Logistica and Perry’s approach, along with voices from the community, will underpin the finished sculpture.

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Credits

[Page 18] ‘Lighting Scheme for Longbridge’ by Cathy Wade, photography by Stephen Burke, 2016

Work developed as part of the artists LPAP residency, generously supported by The William A. Cadbury Charitable Trust, and is exhibited as part of British Art Show 8.

[Page 19] ‘Star Map’ by Cathy Wade, work developed as part of the artists LPAP residency photography by Stephen Burke, 2016

[Pages 10 & 11] ‘1979 1275 GT Mini Restoration by Stuart Whipps’, photography by Stephen Burke, 2015

[Pages 22 & 23] ‘Alternative Longbridge History Walk’, collaboration between Steve Wright, Dr Mike Hodder, Alan Taylor, Ben Waddington & Stephen Burke, photography by Stephen Burke, 2015

Work developed as part of the artists LPAP residency, generously supported by The William A. Cadbury Charitable Trust, and is exhibited as part of British Art Show 8. [Pages 12 & 13] ‘1979 1275 GT Mini Restoration’ © Stuart Whipps, 2016 Work developed as part of the artists LPAP residency, generously supported by The William A. Cadbury Charitable Trust, and is exhibited as part of British Art Show 8. [Page 16] ‘#TheTrainStationAsPublicArt’ work developed as part of the artists LPAP residency © Cathy Wade, 2015 [Page 17] ‘Wild Longbridge’ work developed as part of the artists LPAP residency © Cathy Wade, 2016

[Pages 24 & 25] ‘Women of Longbridge’ work developed as part of the artists LPAP residency © Stephen Burke & Hannah Hull, 2015 [Pages 28 & 29] ‘Map’ by Luke Perry work developed as part of the artists LPAP residency, photography Stephen Burke, 2014 [Pages 30 & 31] ‘Longbridge Street Signs’ work developed as part of the artists LPAP residency by Luke Perry, photography by Stephen Burke, 2014 [Pages 34 & 35] ‘Postcards from Bournville College’ work developed as part of the artists LPAP residency by Hannah Hull, photography by Stephen Burke, 2015

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Credits

[Page 36] ‘Women of Longbridge’ postcards by Stephen Burke & Hannah Hull work developed as part of the artists LPAP residency, photography Hannah Hull, 2015 [Page 36] ‘Bournville & Longbridge Tablecloth’ by Hannah Hull work developed as part of the artists LPAP residency, photography by Hannah Hull, 2014 [Page 37] ‘Longbridge Art Service’ work developed as part of the artists LPAP residency © Hannah Hull, 2014 [Pages 40 & 41] ‘Warning Signs’ by Juneau Projects commissioned by General Public for Longbridge Light Festival 2014, photography by Matt Wilson, 2014 [Pages 42 & 43] ‘Digital Longbridge Workshops’ by Juneau Projects work developed as part of the artists LPAP residency, photography by Stephen Burke, 2015 [Pages 46 & 47] ‘Goods In’ by Redhawk Logistica & Luke Perry work developed as part of the artists LPAP residency, photography by Pete Sloan, 2014

[Page 48] ‘Collective Collages’ by Redhawk Logistica work developed as part of the artists LPAP residency, photography Stephen Burke, 2014 [Page 49] ‘Longbridge Art Service’ by Redhawk Logistica work developed with Hannah Hull as part of the artists LPAP residency, photography Redhawk Logistica, 2014 [Page 49] ‘Goods In’ by Redhawk Logistica & Luke Perry work developed as part of the artists LPAP residency, photography by Stephen Burke, 2014

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Credits

Text by Anneka French, January 2016 Design by Heavy Object Longbridge Public Art Project (LPAP) is a project by WERK lpap.co.uk | werk.org.uk With thanks and gratitude for the generous support we have received from Longbridge residents and project partners.

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