We catch up with the organiser of Shrewsbury Arts Trail and chat a bit about the sculpture that has divided opinion, that has been in the dingle, quarry park for the last three months.
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00:00So we're here at the Dingle Quarry Park and Jess you've been the organiser of
00:03the Arts Fest? Yeah, one of them. And it's a three-month project it's been hasn't it?
00:07It certainly has, yeah, well it goes on for over a year, but the preparation for it, yeah, the
00:12sculptures have been in place for three months and time for them to return home.
00:16So just tell us a little bit about the sculpture here, the lads sadly are just
00:20putting the scaffolding up to kind of get ready to start taking it down.
00:23Yeah, getting ready to take it down. So the sculpture is Redhead Sunset Stack by
00:28Almuth Tebenoff, who's the Vice President of the Royal Society of Sculptors.
00:32Yeah, and there's been a bit of controversy, well as you know,
00:37potentially as you would want if there's an interesting thought-provoking piece
00:40of artwork, some people are going to love it, some people are not going to like it.
00:43Yeah. Frustratingly for you, some people I guess put their view in without
00:47actually reading about it, learning a bit about it, there's been an information
00:51board here, what's the sculpture about Jess, what can you tell us about it?
00:55It's about life really, so the bottom cube is all perfect as we come
01:01into the world and we get knocked and battered through life and we have to
01:05pull ourselves back together, fix ourselves, and then the rectangle at
01:11the top shows how we do fix ourselves and pull ourselves back together, we just
01:15might be in a different shape than when we started, a representation of life.
01:22And the colours, that's linked to a sunset, yeah? Exactly, yeah, she's very much
01:27inspired by the beauty of a sunset. Yeah, here we go.
01:32So Jess, do you know what's going to be here next year, what's the
01:36deal with the Arts Trail next year? So we will be putting on an Arts Trail next year,
01:40what exactly is a little bit imbalanced at the moment, we've been
01:45applying for a lot of grants, which previously what we're offering we would
01:49have got through on, but grants have become very competitive, so the Hive in
01:54Shrewsbury, they're having the same problem, they've set up a funding
01:59page and we've done the same, so that's Shrewsbury Arts Trail at Just Giving, so
02:03yeah, if anybody can spare any amount it'll help us to facilitate what we put
02:08on each year. Thank you, and what's been your thoughts on some of the
02:13comments then, is it what you want to provoke a bit of a
02:17response for, or is it frustrating that people are perhaps not informing
02:22themselves before they comment? Well I mean, I think everybody's got their right to
02:26think and say what they want about things, and I think the Arts always, and
02:32maybe should be, thought-provoking and maybe a bit sometimes controversial, but
02:38yeah, at some points it was a bit hard to take, when things got nasty
02:44rather than kind of reflective comments, and it got quite personal at points, but
02:53I think in the end it actually drove more people to come down and have a look
02:58at it, and make up their own decision about it. Well I guess we could, I mean we
03:03can put to bed a couple of things, some people were saying, oh this is permanent
03:06and it's going to be here forever, well as we can see the scaffolding's going up
03:09for it to come down, so this is a regular spot isn't it, where the Arts Festival
03:13kind of use it to display art? Yeah, we've been working with the Town Council for three years now, so this is the third year we've put a sculpture into the Dingle Pond, which is such a wonderful setting.
03:24So that puts that one to bed, people have been saying, what council money being spent on this?
03:28Yeah, no council money at all, not a penny, we raise the money ourselves
03:34through sponsorship and predominantly grants. Yeah, and then the next one,
03:39some people, criticism was saying, oh it's just some painting, scaffolding
03:42uphold, but the whole idea, this isn't a Victorian masterpiece sculpture, this
03:47isn't, this is a beauty in a different way isn't it really? It is, but it is actually very
03:52thought out and very well constructed, I mean you see the different kinks in it, each one has been done very precisely, welded back together, so there was
04:04queries over the manufacture of it, and also the idea and artistic merit of it,
04:11you know, as I say, she's in her seventies, she's been at this a long time, there's certainly a lot of thought that goes into her work, so it's been wonderful working with Alma, she's the most amazing woman, and I'm so proud of what we've achieved this year, I think it's been wonderful.
04:30Yeah, well it's been interesting, you know, it's made people think a little bit about it, and possibly might think them more, if people have just come across it and just thought, well it's just some old
04:41metal bits she's sort of painted, you know, like you say, there's a meaning behind everything she's done and the shapes that she's created.
04:47It certainly has changed opinions, you know, we've had a lot of messages either through social media and emails coming through actually calling for it to stay here, and the same with
04:57Halima's Hurricane and St Mary's, you know, people, a lot of people really want them to stay, but unfortunately they are on loan from the artists and they need to go home.
05:07And I guess it's when you're choosing something to go here for three months, it's a whole different brief I guess, if something was going to be permanent, isn't it?
05:15Oh absolutely.
05:16Potentially even yourself, you might choose, if it was going to be a permanent thing, you might choose something different than if it was a three month thing.
05:22Yes, absolutely, there would be a lot more thought and discussions with the local community if we were going to be installing something permanently, it's a completely different kettle of fish for putting
05:35something in place for three months.
05:37Well thank you Jess for all the hard work you do with the Arts Trail and for bringing something interesting, thought-provoking and quite striking to the quarry and the dingle, thank you.
05:47Thank you very much.