THE CULTURAL STRATEGY - Berkeley Group Holdings · 2016. 12. 2. · Britain’s Triennial Altermodern, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud in 2009, and the British Art Show 7 Days of the

T H E C U LT U R A L S T R AT E G Y

5286 Berkeley Homes (BOOKLET) Stage 8 Work (PRESS QUALITY).indd 1 10/10/2016 11:17

A N E W S E N S E O F P L AC E

Discovering the past /History/A narrative of time.

OUR CULTURAL STRATEGY Nearly five years ago, Berkeley started planning a new community at Vista. We had a vision for a neighbourhood which created permeability across the site, links to historical Battersea Park and the wider borough. We are delighted that our cultural trail of public art has been created to enhance Vista and the interaction with its surroundings. Berkeley has collaborated with four unique artists, consulting with local residents, to draw from elements of the last 1,000 years of the area’s history. The result is a series of different pieces celebrating Battersea’s legacy and local landmarks. The journey starts in the tenth century, with an Anglo-Saxon dagger that was found in the Thames at Battersea and ends with old and new recollections from the local community. Overleaf, you can read more about the artists and each piece of artwork. We feel this strategy contributes to the site’s unique identity and sense of place and would welcome you to investigate each piece as they are revealed.

900 Wassail (C10th Anglo-Saxon dagger, River Thames)

1871 A Dog Needs a Home (Battersea Dogs Home)

1903 2s 6d. Albert Mansbridge’s WEA (Workers Education Association)

1908 Balloons for Sale. (The Short Brothers, Aeronautical Engineers)

1951 Pleasure Gardens. (Festival of Britain)

1977 Weight of the Stone (Pink Floyd’s ‘Animals’ album)

1979 Singing the Blues. (The Clash’s London Calling video)

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Matthew Darbyshire/Sculpture Garden/The interaction of art in motion.

Queenstown RoadChelsea Bridge

Battersea Park

Courtyard Garden

Playground

Chel

sea

Brid

geW

harf

SunkenGarden

TheCascades

Sophora House

Altissima House

Camellia House

Valetta House

Valetta HouseUpper Levels

WaterFeature

Map not to scale and is indicative only. V I S TA 41

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47

6

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21

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A Dog Needs a HomeS Mark Gubb

Weight of The StoneS Mark Gubb

Balloons for SaleS Mark Gubb

2s 6dS Mark Gubb

Pleasure GardensS Mark Gubb

WassailS Mark Gubb

Singing the BluesS Mark Gubb

1 Sculpture GardenMatthew Darbyshire

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2

Feature CladdingNicky Hirst

Feature CladdingNicky Hirst

Artist locations

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Network Rail Arch Future Phase

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Matthew Darbyshire

Sculpture Garden takes its cue from the 1951 ‘International Open Air Exhibition at Battersea Park of Sculpture’ creating a sculptural environment that appeals visually and critically to a broader audience.

The garden comprises six play sculptures and a wet pour rubber design. Sculpture Garden plays on the imagined idea that the Battersea Open Air Sculpture Show of 1951 wasn’t dispersed (and in many cases destroyed) but instead has, over the past 60 years, been reinvigorated and repurposed to suit the needs and desires of Battersea’s residents. The garden will be open to Vista residents as well as the general public.

Matthew Darbyshire’s commission will transform the municipal children’s playpark into an interactive artwork.



Mark Gubb/Way-Marking/Reflecting on past & present, of place to place.

Matthew Darbyshire

Matthew Darbyshire was born in the UK in 1977. He studied Fine Art at the Slade School of Art and at the Royal Academy Schools in London. Darbyshire has had solo exhibitions at Manchester Art Gallery, Gasworks, London; The Hayward Project Space, London; Herald Street, London; Tramway, Glasgow; Taro Nasu, Tokyo and Jousse Enterprise, Paris.

He has also participated in numerous group exhibitions across Europe, Asia and America.

Darbyshire has exhibited in various major UK survey shows including the ICA’s Nought to Sixty programme curated by Mark Slaydon in 2008, Tate Britain’s Triennial Altermodern, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud in 2009, and the British Art Show 7 Days of the Comet, curated by Tom Morton and Lisa Le Feuvre 2010.

He is represented by Herald Street Gallery, London



Mark Gubb

The placement of the artworks will help to mark route-ways and emphasise pedestrian areas such as meeting points, public space and play areas. It will create a trail to encourage visitors and residents to explore and navigate the site, providing a stimulating and entertaining journey through encountering a series of individual artworks that make a coherent whole.

S Mark Gubb is making a series of text works and small-scale sculptural markers that link back to the site’s heritage and local landmarks.

Weight of the Stone.

A Dog Needs a Home.A Dog Needs a Home.2s 6d. 2s 6d.

Wassail: Be Thou Hail / Healthy (an Anglo Saxon Welcome).

The individual works celebrate moments of cultural and social history in the area as well as offering opportunities to engage residents, local businesses and organisations [such as users of Battersea Park, Battersea Dogs Home and The Workers Education Association] in the creation, installation and subsequent launch of the commission.



Mark Gubb

Singing the Blues.

Balloons for Sale.

The pieces combine to give a real breadth of representations of the culture and history of the site and surrounding area. There is industry and aspiration, ancient history, modern heritage and new community, grass-roots social change and world-influencing cultural history of the recent past.

The seven pieces around the site, acting as way-markers and meeting points, have taken inspiration from a number of different moments in time. Namely, the discovery of the Seax of Beagnoth - a C10th Anglo-Saxon dagger- in the Thames, at Battersea (Wassail); popular culture of international renowned Album Artwork (A Dog Needs a Home and Weight of The Stone) and live music performances (Singing the Blues).

Inspiration also comes from the memories of long-term residents of Battersea, who visited the Pleasure Gardens attached to the Festival of Britain in 1951, helping to create a poem depicting the experience (Pleasure Gardens).

Alongside this is the celebration of pioneering locals, like the Short Brothers, who founded the first company in the world to make production aircraft (Balloons for Sale), or Albert Mansbridge who created the WEA (Workers Educational Association), the UK’s largest voluntary sector provider of adult education (2s6d).

These way-markers offer points of interest, which, inherently, have these histories embedded within them, creating a new experience for residents and passers-by.



Mark Gubb

S Mark Gubb (b.1974) lives and works in Cardiff.

His work has been widely exhibited in solo and group exhibitions including Turner Contemporary (Margate), Dublin Contemporary, Matthew Bown Gallery (Berlin), Mostyn (Llandudno), Castlefield Gallery (Manchester), ICA (London) and PS1 MoMA (NYC).

Residencies/fellowships include URRA International Residency, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2011), Standpoint Futures, Standpoint Gallery, London (2010),

Nicky Hirst/Platanus/Fluidity of shapes, of pattern & paths.

Cove Park, Scotland (2008), Arts Council of England’s International Fellowship at Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow, Poland (2005) and The Wheatley Fellowship at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (2005).

Permanent public works include commissions for Grizedale Arts, Nottingham Contemporary, Aspex Gallery (Portsmouth) and The Welsh Assembly Government.



Nicky Hirst

Her concept makes reference to the adjacent park and particularly the London Plane Trees planted in the 1850’s, both in Battersea Park and wider Central London.

The artwork takes inspiration from the Plane Trees bark pattern, and the resulting fluid shapes also resemble and reference the water surface of the nearby River Thames.

The work is reminiscent of the contours and pathways winding around Battersea Park and echoes the sympathetic, layered and contoured nature of the development.

Nicky Hirst was commissioned to develop an artwork for the Vista building façade.

Above: View along Sopwith Way.

Above: Close-up detail of line work.



Nicky Hirst

Nicky Hirst is an artist who lives and works in London. She studied Fine Art followed by Art and Architecture and has exhibited her work widely in solo and group exhibitions. Her work has been purchased for a number of public and private collections including, Contemporary Art Society’s Special Collection Scheme for museums, The Arts Council, Saatchi Collection, Pictet Bank London and Penguin Books.

She has undertaken numerous public commissions for diverse institutions such as University of Oxford, Bulgari Hotel Knightsbridge, Guy’s Hospital in London and Royal Veterinary College in Hertfordshire.



T H E C U LT U R A L S T R AT E G Y

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Documents

THE CULTURAL STRATEGY - Berkeley Group Holdings · 2016. 12. 2. · Britain’s Triennial Altermodern, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud in 2009, and the British Art Show 7 Days of the