JOHN MAINE SCULPTURE

During my visit to South Bank I was immediately attracted to the broad display of street art: the performers posing to the public, musicians, skate park with its colourful graffiti and youth using it as well as the sculptures lining the riverside walk. This art is more direct and accessible to public as opposed to enclosed in gallery spaces, theatres and concert halls. It prompts visitors response and engages them, whether they visit the site to enjoy it or just to have a stroll along the river.The tourists will pose with the performers, listen to the music, watch skaters perform their tricks and take pictures next to the sculptures.

The Arena sculpture, most architectural of the works of art along South Bank, though, triggers the most direct response. Depending on time of the day there are kids running on it trying to keep balance on the curved surface or students sitting there enjoying their lunch - people not only watch it or pose next to it but actually utilise the sculpture for their enjoyment. Without as much as noticing it as a work of art they engage with it. Perhaps they see it as a more fancy bench, the same giving it a new purpose.

The sculpture was created in 1983-88 by a British sculptor John Maine for the Sculpture Show, commissioned by South Bank Centre. Arena, a large broken circle of stone blocks does not immediately appear as a work of art, more like an integral part of the area. This is no coincidence: Maine's works, many of then being outdoor sculptures, show strong links to landscape and architecture and are integral parts of their sites such as another of his sculptures designed for the Winchester Cathedral:

SOUTH OF THE RIVER...

The South Bank walk is a buzzing place, filled with people every hour of the day: visiting galleries, enjoying an afternoon stroll along the river or simply rushing to get their lunch. We go there to see a performance, exhibition, movie, the list goes on. It is the small things in our way that we usually take for granted and fail to notice. How much attention do we pay to sidewalk patterns or bench design? Unless it is forced onto us by being particularly eye-catching, we will pass it by without as much as a glance.
What I would like to do this year is to show such things using film, at unexpected angles and close-ups, taking them out of their proportions and in a new form, adjusting lighting and colours. I will add to and subtract from them, creating new entities. It is by surprise that we learn to notice these elements and often all it takes is a minimal intervention that gets us out of our comfort zone, forcing us to look aside or take a step left perhaps.
Film, as abstract and often indirect means of representation is a platform that will allow me to express and possibly design the subtleties and as such, aided by other techniques, will effectively lead to developing a richer, fuller project.

SITE ELEMENTS

ARCHIVE

In this project, researching a series of gallery/museum shops I tried to investigate the means of showing a three dimensional space within the constraints of photography (above). What was especially interested for me within the project is the deconstruction of spaces through separation of elements of design such as shapes, colours, light etc.(below). By studying each of the elements separately we learn more about them and can see spaces in a new light (metaphorically). While this is one of my first works and the quality of the drawings could be improved, I still find the concept of creation through deconstruction interesting and hope to come back to it at some point.

The above photographs were my first attempts at using a pinhole camera. The shapes are blurred and colours exaggerated. Again, by these simple means one's attention is immediately drawn to the beauty of these images. Below is a series of drawings of a leftover spaces project construction for which the above photographs were also taken.


The two technical drawings show a project where part of the sidewalk was wobbly, getting the passers-by to act a performance of trying to catch balance and prevent falling over.

This picture shows an earlier stage of the above project, with actual actors performing at the raised-level slabs. The image, with its exaggerated contrast, gives an illusion of light when trying to capture the movement.