Archform - Newport Railway Station - Gwent, Wales. - Abstract Public Sculptures on Waymarking.com

"Harvey Hood, an artist based at Newport Art College, was commissioned by British Rail in collaboration with the Welsh Arts Council to produce this tall standing piece to be located outside Newport Railway Station. Appropriate to its location, the sculptural form explores "the engineering processes and structures fundamental to the building of Britain's railway system". The sculptor attempted "to find metal shapes and forms that were related to the environment, and to fit in with the local architecture - the station roof, nearby bridges and other structures can be related to the piece.

This conception of a site specific piece of sculpture has a historical integrity, given Newport's connection with the Great Western Railway and preeminent Victorian engineer Brunel (- who implemented an innovative iron bridge design at Newport when the original wooden structure over the Usk caught fire). However, this exercise in modernist sculptural form proved too much for popular taste in the town and gave rise to no small public controversy. Kenneth Budd's earlier decorative mural work to enliven pedestrian walkways of 1975 and 1978 had been designed precisely to add colour and visual interest to an otherwise nondescript concrete environment. The non-representational character and challenging engagement of modern sculpture had less popular appeal by contrast, so that public controversy remained an expected response.

In retrospect however we may say that Harvey Hood's Archform blazed a trail of sorts for modern sculpture's presence on the streets of Newport. A decade later, Peter Fink's modernist Steel Wave (1991) was commissioned by the town council on a truly monumental scale, the largest commissioned piece of sculpture in Britain at the time. Also in 1991, Christopher Kelly's ambitious sculpture group the Newport Chartist Memorial was commissioned through an open competition by Newport Borough Council with assistance from the Welsh Arts Council to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Newport Chartist Uprising in 1839. With more public art commissions to follow, and the engagement of Sebastian Boyesen as "Town Sculptor", the Newport townscape became populated by a challenging series of modern sculptures that provoked new voices of controversy and pride as Newport won something of a reputation for itself in the wider art world." Text Source: (visit link)

Title: Archform Artist: Harvey Hood Media (materials) used: Steel Location (specific park, transit center, library, etc.): Taxi Rank - In front of Newport Railway Station Date of creation or placement: 1981

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Date Logged Log   10/26/2012 veritas vita visited it