Public Art Projects
Shanks' Pony
Sustrans route NCN 73, Kilmarnock
Commissioned by Sustrans
Completed June 2016
Dimensions 3.6m tall
Materials CNC cut Corten Steel sculpture on hot dip galvanised steel plinth.
‘Shanks’ Pony’ (or Shanks’ Nag or Shanks’ Mare) is an old Scottish expression. ‘To ride Shanks’ Pony’ means to use your legs (your shanks) and travel on foot. One of the earliest records of the phrase is in a collection of poems by Robert Ferguson from 1785:
“Heh, lad! it wad be news indeed,
Ware I to ride to bonny Tweed,
Wha ne'er laid gamon o'er a steed
Beyont Lysterrick;
And auld shanks-nag wad tire, I dread, To pace to Berwick.”
By the early 1800s the phrase was in common use all around the English speaking world.
This work takes its part of its inspiration from a 1940s wartime public information poster by the design partnership Lewitt-Him. They visualised Shanks’ Pony as a horse made out of a shoe. Their campaign aimed to encourage people to walk more and make room on public transport for people undertaking essential war work.
At almost the same time as the ‘Shanks’ Pony’ phrase was coined the Clark family (who would go on to found the Saxone Shoe factory) began their shoe making business in Kilmarnock in 1783. At this time there were many other small shoe and leather businesses in the area. George Clark started out in shoe manufacturing by stamping out leather patterns which he would supply to other small cottage industries who would then go on to assemble and finish them as shoes. Saxone went on to become an internationally recognised brand, renowned for shoes that were both extremely stylish and very well made.
The sculpture references the stacks of dye-cut leather the Clark family would produce for other shoemakers and includes a brogue pattern - a pattern cut into the leather hardy outdoors shoes that helps the leather dry out after use.
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Often the phase ‘take Shanks’ Pony’ is used when deciding, perhaps reluctantly, to walk when all other means of transport have deserted you. Shanks’ Pony is ever trustworthy. The slogan on the plinth ‘What Matters! I’ll Walk’ is taken from 1936 advert for Saxone and suggests their shoes were the same kind of reliable last resort.
Old Bill
Commissioned by: Appetite Stoke / Stoke South Community Carnival
Design and Production: Gordon Rogers as Lead Artist for Renn Associates.
Materials :Plywood over steel armature. CNC cut steel flock of pigeons, Audio artwork, Field Kitchen serving Trench Stew, Pigeons, Pyrotechnics.
Dimensions approx 8m L, 5m W, 2,4m tall
Devised, designed and produced for Renn Associates - A carnival artwork coinciding with the centenary of WW1, commissioned by Appetite Stoke and referencing the visit of Old Bill, a WW1 era Tank Bank (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_Banks)
The work was commissioned both as a community artwork and as a mentoring activity helping to give shape to a newly established but highly regarded local community carnival.
A replica of Old Bill was built to function both as both a carnival float and a temporary outdoor exhibition. The work, once sited on the carnival site could be entered to reveal a pigeon loft.
WW1 era tanks contained up to 30 pigeons which would be used to report back to the front line - early tanks had no radios so once past the front line pigeons were their only means of communication. Messages could only be sent one way.
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The work was the culmination of an outreach and online project in which people devised messages, memories and memorials that could be carried by pigeons.
The event finale was the mass release of the pigeons followed by a battlefield-simulation pyrotechnic display, a sounding of the last post and finally a bonfire through which the tank sculpture transformed into a flock of doves. These steel dove sculptures were then distributed amongst the local community.
The work involved many partnerships including Reid Transport, an expert local haulier specialising in in oversized loads, the President of the Midlands Flying Club and local pigeon keepers, a community choreographer, sound artists, army cadets, volunteer trench builders, the catering prowess of artist Mark Renn, and everyone brave enough to sample his ‘Trench Stew’ made from WW1 frontline rations.
Blind Johnnie
Stranraer
Commissioned by : Dumfries and Galloway Council
Design and Production: Gordon Rogers
Consultation and outreach: Gordon Rogers and Mark Renn
Materials: CNC cut Corten Steel
Dimensions: Approx 3m tall
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Often in my work I aim to identify and commemorate a piece of local history that was slipping out of living memory, no longer on the tip of the tongue. I’m interested in local stories that are almost forgotten and aim to reinvigorate that folk memory as that story moves from collective living memory to written history.
’Blind Johnnie’ was John Alexander - born blind and with cerebral palsy he was a street musician playing in Stranraer for over 50 years. He lived an extremely humble existence but when he died in 1905 huge numbers of people attended his funeral. A poem written at the time of his death, eulogising him, described how the soundscape of the town had been changed, silenced, by his departure, repeating the phrase “Blind Johnnie’s awa’” at the end of each verse. This poem, one photo and his penny whistle concertina accordion are pretty much the only artefacts pertaining to him that still exist. The sculpture was designed by opening out the shape of the accordion and effectively subtracting Johnnie’s silhouette from the form - so that like the poem his presence is felt as an absence. Cutting him out of the accordion has rendered the instrument silent. His silhouette is cut through the sculpture at an angle so like the almost lost memory of Johnnie his image has to be searched for.
The work was developed in response to the deceptively complex site - sloping in two directions and approached from three directions. The angled cut running through the work means that the outline, and volume and cut edges of the work evolve constantly with every step as the viewer passes.
The plain white background provided by the gable ends at the rear of the site was used to create a sharply defined image of Johnnie to appear when viewed from a particular angle - a title panel on the wall behind the work aligns to complete the image.
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Waking Corwen's Giant
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Corwen, North Wales
Concept, Design and Production: Gordon Rogers
Explosives Engineer: John Kettles Blast Design
‘Drewyn’ geo-glyph design Lucy Hudson
Storytelling and Myth Making: Fiona Collins, Gillian Smith
Technicians: Doug Tiplady, Andy Pratt, Harry Lobnitz
Client: Clwydian Range and Dee Valley AONB / Addo Creative
Dimensions: 6 Sculptures ranging 1.2m dia to 4m tall, 7 giant footprints measuring between 10 and 30m long. 300m Geoglyph.
Materials: Steel, Oak Barrel, Cable Drum, Rope, Timber, Reeds, Artificial Foliage, Rope, Peat, 3000m of high explosive detonating cord, wildflower seeds.
Unknown to many in the Corwen a Giant has been asleep on above the town on a hill that bears his name. Recorded in a 16th Century document ‘The Giants of Wales and their Dwellings’ Drewyn is distinct amongst his Giant neighbours - who are broadly noted as being vengeful, murderous, angry, and even cannibalistic - he is by contrast described only as being generous, and being in love.
Drewyn Gawr made Caer Drewyn in Deyrnion, the other side of the river from Corwen. And to his sweetheart he made that Caer, to milk her cows within it.
The project involved the town gathering to wake Drewyn and watch him walk from the Hillfort (Caer) that he built, into Corwen, before falling asleep again.
In search of his nameless sweetheart he has dropped various possession which now litter the landscape. They give clues to his life, his fearsome neighbours, and hints that perhaps he and his sweetheart have plans to elope.
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https://www.clwydianrangeanddeevalleyaonb.org.uk/projects/corwen-giant-trail/
