With the Yorkshire Sculpture International Festival rapidly approaching I have been given the opportunity to submit a concept for a contemporary public art sculpture in Leeds. Leeds is a modern, fast growing city with a huge student population as well as rapidly growing digital technology and financial services industry sectors. City goers tend to be focussed on their day to day activities and this sculpture could be a way to suggest a reflective moment in a busy life. I envision the sculpture to be in two parts with each part to be placed at either end of the Briggate shopping precinct in Leeds City Centre. The work would be representative of Containment and Freedom.
Containment is to be several mesh cube shapes grouped together and placed at the southern end of Briggate where there is a plethora of fast food outlets and could be open as a receptacle to record the daily detritus produced over a 3 day period in a commercial public place. Freedom (see image) is to be a series of softly curling mesh sheets manufactured from the leftover material after producing the cubes for containment and could be placed at the northern end. These would be representative of the portal or gateway leaving the city for the green, clean, open spaces of the countryside.
The materials would be galvanised steel mesh sheets with the cubes being riveted to form a strong seal along their edges and incorporating lifting eyes for ease of installation and eventual removal. The leftover mesh would be rolled to form tubes of differing sizes which can be interlinked and folded along their curled edges to form joins with each other.
