Blackburn Gateway

A quick email from Jem at Eaton Waygood Associates in the UK offered a couple of pics of a current project for a gateway for Blackburn. As I'm a sucker for anyone named Jem, I thought I'd drop a few photos into a post. From the email: "The work has a masonry side, (drystone wall, local stone) and a green side (ivy growing in coir troughs at various levels) The work is a gateway both for the town of Blackburn and for the Pennine landscape."




:: images via Eaton Waygood

A little digging came up with some addition information on the project, including a link to a longer narrative and plan graphic... some additional info: "The scheme will be celebrated by a welcoming piece of artwork as the main gateway feature to the Roundabout opposite the Red Lion Public House. North West based artists, Eaton Waygood Associates have been commissioned to create a piece of work that is reflective of the local area. The work takes the form of a dry stone wall orientated along the axis of the road leading to the town centre. The ‘wall’ rises from the edges of the roundabout to a height of some 6 metres above road level and is cleft in two at its midpoint to form a cutting. Hanging above this cutting and supported from each face of the wall is a sphere constructed from intersecting steel plates. The reverse side of the “wall” is clad in ivy forming a green surface, again with the cutting and the sphere dominating the centre of the work. Lighting forms a major part of the work with both the sphere and wall illuminated to dramatic effect."


:: image via CB Partners

And from some of the news articles the project, much like all art - has recieved mixed results.


:: image via Lancashire Telegraph

About Eaton Waygood: "Eaton Waygood Associates are environmental artists and designers concerned with the fusion of art and public space in urban regeneration. The practice is firmly rooted in the application of artistic principles to urban design, working to create places rich in meaning, dramatic in appearance, and individual in character. This design approach crosses the boundaries of art, urban design, public space, landscape architecture and product design. EWA are members of the Urban Design Group, Art & Architecture and Public Art Forum."