Wildflower Public Art Project for Tilia Homes.
Bristol 2024
Wildflower, commissioned by Walter Jack Studio, is a site specific sculpture, designed following a community engagement program directed at local people in collaboration with Avon Wildlife Trust. Wildflower is located at the entrance of the Urban Quarter a new housing development by Tilia Homes.
The large scale flower sculpture is a playful nod to the Hengrove Mounds; a nature reserve overlooking the Urban Quarter, a new housing development in Hengrove. Wildflower serves as a functional and interactive piece of public art encouraging green exploration and celebrating green spaces in our cities.
Client: Tilia Homes Producer: Diana Hatton Consultancy Commissioner: Walter Jack Studio Technical Assistance: Paul Channing Metalwork: Tim Latter Galvanising and Painting: Cardiiff Galvanisers Transport: Baber Transport Video: Luis Veloso(Fried Peppers)
Community Engagement
The community engagement programme for Wildflower began with a period of in-depth research into the site, its history and its surroundings. Right next door to the new Urban Quarter development sits the Hengrove Mounds, one of Avon Wildlife Trust's My Wild City sites, a rich wildlife haven full of meadow grasses, wildflowers, plants, insects and goats. A hidden gem that most of the incoming residents had no idea existed.
To start, I went exploring and took a roll of film at the Hengrove Mounds to properly capture the beauty, walked the site and dug into the history of the area, which had previously been used as an airport field and landfill after the Second World War.
Working in collaboration with Avon Wildlife Trust, I devised a community engagement programme: to generate ideas for the commission from local people, to facilitate a relationship with residents and their green spaces, share creative skills and explore!
I hosted two events with Avon Wildlife Trust at the Hengrove Mounds, to generate interest in the local wildlife, and start gathering ideas that later fed in to the concept of my final artwork. To reach as many local people as possible I also engaged residents directly through door to door conversations, and took part in community workshop sessions led by Scott Farlow as part of the wider Making Hengrove project.
The connection between the development and the Mounds became central to the concept, encouraging local communities to take an active interest in the nature reserve on their doorstep.
more info coming soon…
in the mean time check here.
Steel flower hanging in the air waiting to be galvanised at Cardiff Galvanisers.
Welding a bit of Wildflower. To be so involved in the fabrication process and learn new skills like welding, was a huge privilege and such a cool part of this project.