3 ARTISTS

JEFF ALLEN / REBECCA CHESNEY / MIKE LOFTUS

Over the past few months these visual artists have been exploring the spaces of Wigg Island, Spike Island, and Pickerings Pasture on the banks of The Mersey.
Jeff Allen has worked regularly with Halton’s Parks and Countryside Service through workshops and recently as a commissioned artist reconstructing parts of the Duck Decoy close to Pickerings Pasture so that visitors can see how the site would have looked during its use. Both Wigg Island and Pickerings Pasture are areas of regeneration from the industrial dereliction of the recent past. The pieces Jeff created are ‘The Whale’, at Pickerings Pasture, a reminder of the beaching of a Minke whale near this site in 1998, and ‘The Living Room’ at Wigg Island. Working in willow, chosen for its almost unique ability to re-grow when inserted back into the earth, Jeff has forced nature to take a hand in the construction process of his artworks. (Hence – ‘The Living Room’.)

Rebecca Chesney created ‘My Control’, a fence measuring 5m X 5m enclosing a small part of meadow at Pickerings Pasture Local Nature Reserve. Situated on the banks of the Mersey Estuary and under the flight path of Liverpool International Airport the site was used for the disposal of both domestic and industrial waste between 1944 and 1967. The cleaning of the site started in 1982 and it was then opened to the public in 1986. The site was designated as a local nature reserve in 1992. The meadow of Pickerings Pasture needs careful management to keep it in this state. Apart from Rebecca, nobody has access to ‘My Control’. In time, ‘My Control’ will look different to the surrounding meadow as dominant species of plant are allowed to take over the plot. Over the past year ‘My Control’ has been surveyed five times and has revealed 37 species of plant which includes 12 different species of grass. Rebecca has taken over 1000 photographs of the plot in different stages.


Mike Loftus: his Marconi communications project ‘Crossing The Mersey With A Bridge Of Sound’ was inspired by Marconi’s first transatlantic radio transmission from Poldhu in Cornwall, to St John’s, Newfoundland. To gain the necessary height required for the antennae Marconi resorted to using military kites to lift his antennae rather than building a large solid structure. The idea of Mike’s project is to use this technology to create a local communications system between groups. The practical part of the project comprises of two main elements: kite construction and crystal radio receiver making. The design of kite chosen is based on the French military kite. The kites produced are scaled down versions. Further inspiration for the project is the geography of this area, communities divided by The Mersey. Groups on opposite sides of the river will set sail in the sky and float their ideas to one another. The locations chosen for the transmissions are Wigg Island and Spike Island. Testing the signals will form part of radio workshops.
 

 

JF writes: Very interesting concepts, but I was not blown away by the visual impact of the actual exhibition, other than the beautiful and impressive willow chairs made by Jeff Allen using willow from Wigg Island. I also really liked the look as well as the idea of Rebecca Chesney’s ‘The Core Of My Control’ – a core of soil samples in a glass tube, presented in a roughly soldered (or braised) tall narrow hinged metal box. From photos it looked as if Mike constructed the kites from polythene and Sellotape and sticks with ‘help’ from the chubby hands of children from St Edwards Primary School. Some of the kites were on display, but one supposes they were functional rather than ‘art objects’. The video was a good addition, though the sound quality was very muffled.
It was an exhibition of ideas rather than purely visual art forms, and therefore far more of a challenge to present in a gallery environment.


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