The Wild Table of Love

I had to visit Bart's Hospital today for more treatment for my osteoarthritis (this time in the hip!) and walked over to St Paul's Cathedral afterwards via Paternoster Square - which is where I came across The Wild Table of Love

The Wild Table of Love in Paternoster Square, City of London

The Wild Table of Love

I came home and looked it up on the Internet. You can read more about it on this page on the website of Gillie and Marc who created this extremely large bronze sculpture.

This public sculpture experience is an invitation to join the best banquet in the world. Expertly crafted in bronze, the table is set and the animals are already tucking in, all that is left is for the public to take their seats.

Rabbitwoman and Dogman, the internationally beloved hybrid characters who have travelled the world spreading messages of love, acceptance, and adventure, play host to the party. They sit at a huge banquet table, six metres long, adorned with some of the most delectable foods imaginable. Their guests; ten of the world's most endangered animals. Rabbitwoman and Dogman have opened their table to the animals as a symbol of love and support, welcoming them into their family and promising to protect them in every way they can.

The Animals
The ten endangered animals include; a hippo, Masai giraffe, African elephant, Bengal tiger, koala, chimpanzee, Grevy’s zebra, Northern white rhino, lion, and mountain gorilla. They have each been invited to the table as representatives of some of the best-known species in the world. And yet they all are dangerously close to the same threat, extinction.

A closer look

Copyright Making A Mark Publications

Another perspective

Gillie and Marc - creators of public art

Gillie and Marc Schattner are an Australian collaborative artist couple. This is what it says about them on their website.

Gillie and Marc have been called “the most successful and prolific creators of public art in New York’s History” by the New York Times. Creating some of the world’s most innovative public sculptures, Gillie and Marc are redefining what public art should be, spreading messages of love, equality, and conservation around the world. Their highly coveted sculptures and paintings can be seen in art galleries and public sites in over 250 cities. They’re Archibald Prize Finalists and have won the Chianciano Biennale in Italy, together with winning 2 years in a row People’s Choice Award in Sydney’s Sculpture by the Sea, among many other notable awards and accolades.

You can follow Gillie and Marc on 

• https://gillieandmarc.art/
• https://www.facebook.com/gillieandmarc and 
• https://www.instagram.com/gillieandmarcart/ 

Copyright Making A Mark Publications

By way of counterbalance - Jerry Salt said....

Jerry Saltz - the art critic , who won a Pulitzer Prize for Art criticism in 2018 - wrote about a work they created in 2018 in an article in Vulture titled The New Astor Place Rhino Sculpture Is a Kitschy Monstrosity - and below are some extracts which articulate his feelings further

It is an ugly, bathos-filled folly that proves my adage that 95 percent of all public sculpture is crap. Thank goodness this crap is only temporary.

The artists may be ditzy and clueless when it comes to sculpture, but their hearts are in the right place.

The sculpture is bad burlesque recklessness, a travesty that theatricalizes calamity.

As an art critic, I also feel compelled to add that if you like the sculpture, I’m afraid it means that you have pretty bad taste.

I'm not quite sure where my feelings lie. I much confess that although I found it interesting I'm also glad it's only temporary!

Four artists shortlisted for the Windrush Monument at Waterloo Station

The names of the four artists shortlisted to create the planned Windrush Monument were announced last week. Their designs for the Monument - which will be located at Waterloo Station - will be displayed around the country this summer.

 

Images of the shortlisted artists
(L to R: Jeannette Ehlers, Thomas J Price, Valda Jackson, Basil Watson)

This post covers:

• the aim of the Windrush Monument
• the shortlisted artists
• arrangements for consultation with the Caribbean community in the UK.

 

The Windrush Monument

The Windrush Monument will be a permanent tribute to a generation of arrivals from the Caribbean to Britain – from the arrival of MV Empire Windrush in 1948 and in the decades that followed.  Artist shortlist for national Windrush Monument revealed |Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government and Windrush Commemoration Committee 

 

The aim of the Monument

 

The intention is that the Monument will be:

• An ambitious public artwork 
• A testament to the contribution of Caribbean pioneers in communities across the United Kingdom. 
• A visible statement of shared history and heritage
• A permanent place of reflection and inspiration. 
  

Specifically the monument will recognise how the Windrush Generation have - over the last 70 years:

• enriched the history of the UK
• made invaluable contributions to all aspects of British life, from our health and transport services to our politics, businesses, literature and culture. 

That's quite a challenge for any artist!

 

Location: Waterloo Station

 

Waterloo station in London is where thousands of Windrush pioneers first arrived in London, after the M.V. Windrush docked at Tilbury, before starting new lives across the UK. 

 

The station's strong association with the stories of many members of the Windrush Generation means it was chosen as the location for the sculpture - to celebrate their arrival and contribution to the UK.

I remember vividly my own moment of arrival, as a 10 year old – stepping off the train and standing on Platform 19 at Waterloo Station. That spot, familiar to so many of us and our parents, is less than a few hundred metres from where the Windrush monument will stand in perpetuity. Baroness Floella Benjamin DBE

The intention is that the Windrush Monument will be unveiled on Windrush Day 2022.

 

Shortlisted artists

Unsurprisingly, the four artists shortlisted to design the monument are all of Caribbean descent. Two are from the UK and two are based outside the UK - but have a Caribbean heritage.

They include world renowned, established and up and coming artists working across the visual arts. 

The artists were selected by the Windrush Commemoration Committee (WCC), chaired by Baroness Floella Benjamin DBE. 

The four artists chosen to make up the final shortlist are listed below. Links to their websites are embedded in their names.

Pages of the Sea - the WW1 Beach Portraits

I only found out about Pages of the Sea Project at the weekend. Little did I realise when I was walking right behind Danny Boyle 10 days ago (he lives near me) that I'd be writing about him this week.

The Pages of the Sea - Beach Portraits Page

on 11 November 2018, communities will gather on beaches across the UK to say goodbye and thank you, to the millions of men and women who left their shores during the war, many never to return.

Pages of the Sea was the largest simultaneous coastal arts project ever to take place in the UK.

It's been a major public art project curated by Oscar-winning filmmaker Danny Boyle for the First World War centenary - with the aim that people all around the UK could get involved with a more informal commemoration of the centenary of the end of the war and a final salute to the people who gave their lives.  The aim of the project was to be open and democratic in a space which is open to anyone.

Watch this three minute video to see what happened across the UK on Sunday 11th November - the centenary of the end of the First World War.

THE WOUND IN TIME

It is the wound in Time. The century’s tides,

chanting their bitter psalms, cannot heal it.

Not the war to end all wars; death’s birthing place;

the earth nursing its ticking metal eggs, hatching

new carnage. But how could you know, brave

as belief as you boarded the boats, singing?

The end of God in the poisonous, shrapneled air.

Poetry gargling its own blood. We sense it was love

you gave your world for; the town squares silent,

awaiting their cenotaphs. What happened next?

War. And after that? War. And now? War. War.

History might as well be water, chastising this shore;

for we learn nothing from your endless sacrifice.

Your faces drowning in the pages of the sea.

Carol Ann Duffy, 2018.

Where the beaches were

Pages of the Sea was  commissioned by 14-18 NOW, the UK’s arts programme for the First World War centenary and was supported by The National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund, Arts Council England and Big Lottery Fund, and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

The Sand portraits designed by Sand in your Eye. (You can see examples of their sand drawings on their website)

You can also see what happened on Sunday in the Facebook Live Page It lasts just over an hour.

Click here to watch our Facebook Live of the day so far, including Danny Boyle’s introduction to the project, Fiona Shaw reading Carol Ann Duffy’s poem The Wound In Time, Greg Jenner exploring the history of Folkestone, historian Kenneth Cromie at Murlough beach and footage from Folkestone, Colwyn Bay, Murlough, Blackpool, West Sands.

You can also read about the portraits of people who contributed to the First World War on www.livesofthefirstworldwar.org

The website for the Lives of the First World War Project run by the Imperial War Museum

Hockney adds another way of making art to his portfolio

Westminster Abbey has a new stained glass window designed by David Hockney RA - and the artist has added a new but traditional method of making art to his already eclectic portfolio of methods for creating art.

The window was commissioned to celebrate the reign of Her Majesty The Queen and was unveiled this week.

The new window is located in the Abbey’s north transept, which was previously just plain glass. It will in future be known formally as 'The Queen's Window'.

It's located in an Abbey that was founded in 960AD and has been the church in which the monarch is crowned since 1066. It is also the final resting place of 17 monarchs.  It's a very special place for new public art.

The Queens Window - a new stained glass window in a building which 

This post is about the process used to produce it and finishes with a video of David Hockney speaking about his very first stained glass window and possibly his very last artwork involving a tree.

About David Hockney

The reason for commissioning David Hockney was essentially that

• he has been one of the most influential artists of The Queen's reign 
• his contribution has been recognised to date with an Order of Merit and as a Companion of Honour
• he has a reputation as an artist who works with a =wide range of media and has always been prepared to try new media - or, as in this case, a very traditional method of portraying a visual image

This is his first work in stained glass 

It must feel like a tremendous honour not only to be given the opportunity of celebrating the life of the Queen but also to be able to do so in a building where the artwork will last for centuries.

About the Commission

The artists's brief to provide something symbolic or representational of the subject, rather than a heraldic or figurative design, and for it to be recognisable as his work.

Hockney's response was to develop an image which reflects the The Queen's well known deep affection and connection to the countryside and her identity as a countrywoman.

He designed a country scene, set within his beloved Yorkshire. It features one of his favourite trees at the point in the year that he finds it most attractive - when the hawthorn blossom bursts forth in frothy clouds. He regards that as the celebratory aspect - akin to champagne bubbles!

Unsurprisingly, especially as the design was intended to be representative of his work, it also uses his distinct and vivid colour palette of yellow, red, blue, pink, orange and greens which he has used in the past for paintings of spring in the Yorkshire Wolds.

About the making of the window

Although David Hockney designed the window, its making was not his responsibility.

Barley Studio - a leading stained glass studio of over forty years based in York (which has a rather large Minster with rather a lot of stained glass!) - were commissioned to create the window using traditional techniques

The stained glass artists and craftspeople worked with David Hockney to translate his vision for the window into a reality in stained glass. 

The first task was to get the precise measurements of the window so as to create stencils of the different parts of the window. This was done in May 2017 - and I'm guessing they were at the top of some scaffolding or in a cherry picker for quite a lot of the time.

Barley Studio staff - Keith Marley and Helen Whittaker - take precise measurements 

The next stage involved creating the different sections of the window using lead and stained glass matching the palette determined by Hockney.

Helen Whitaker works on the window at the Barley Studio

When all parts of the window had been made they then needed to be assembled within the window void so as to create the stained glass window. Needless to say this is a job requiring some experience and expertise!

The installation of the Queen's Window

The stained glass window is a piece of art - and as with every piece of art created by Hockney it contains the artist's signature.

David Hockney's signature

Below is a video of David Hockney speaking about the whole process.



The Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall, said:

I’m very pleased that David Hockney accepted my invitation to design this window which is a celebration of the reign of Her Majesty The Queen. What he has produced is directly accessible with wonderful colours. It is a country scene to honour a woman who loves her country.

Dedication of the Window

The window will be dedicated formally by the Dean in the presence of the artist, his family, friends and invited guests on Tuesday 2nd October at 11:30am.

More about David Hockney

I've written about David Hockney on a number of occasions on this blog. You can READ my posts BELOW - they're organised backwards by years.

Those in 2006 and 2016 contain references to his artwork about the Yorkshire landscape - including the major exhibition he had at the Royal Academy of Art - which I will never ever forget

• 2017: About David Hockney and Watercolour
• 2016: A biography of Hockney on iPlayer first shown by the BBC in 2015 (and repeated in 2016)
• 2014
• Hockney, Printmaker (Review #2) - The Etchings - about Hockney Printmaker at Dulwich Picture Gallery
• The Arrival of Spring - David Hockney's latest exhibition - 85% of the digital drawings in The Arrival of Spring had been sold before this exhibition opened at Annely Juda Fine Art.
• Hockney is bigger than Van Gogh!- about my final and fourth visit to A Bigger Picture on the final night
• 2012
• David Hockney on sitting for Lucian Freud
• Review: David Hockney RA - A Bigger Picture
• 22nd January 2012 - Who's made a mark this week? "This post this week has rather a slant towards Hockney, digital art on an iPad and pastels - which pretty much reflects my week."
• 15th January 2012 - Who's made a mark this week? This has a lot of references to the publicity overdrive for the A Bigger Picture exhibition at the RA and includes references to interesting articles
• 2009 
• David Hockney - recent exhibitions - about various recent exhibitions in various countries
• Review: David Hockney - A Bigger Picture - about Bruno Wollheim's film David Hockney - A Bigger Picture
• David Hockney "15 sketchbooks" DVD - a further update
• 2007
• Turner Watercolours with Hockney and Shirley - about Hockney's curation of BP Summer Exhibition: Hockney on Turner Watercolours (11 June 2007 – 3 February 2008).
• Drawing, tea and DVDs at the National Portrait Gallery - another long slow look at the at the David Hockney Portraits exhibition before it closed
• 2006
• David Hockney: Fifteen Sketchbooks 2002-2003 - Update on DVD availability
• David Hockney and Shirley - sharing art and sketchbooks - about the David Hockney Portraits exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery and his Fifteen Sketchbooks completed in 2002-3003
• Two London exhibitions for David Hockney about "David Hockney Portraits - Life Love Art" at the NPG and "A Year in Yorkshire" in at the Annely Juda Gallery

Aniconism and Artwork for the new Whitechapel Station.

This is about some of the artwork being commissioned for Crossrail - now officially known as the new Elizabeth Line - from Reading and Heathrow through central tunnels across London  to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east. (map)

I read a BBC News article this morning about How art and design can transform the daily commute.

Subsequently I learned a new word - aniconism - which was not in the article but is the word which represents what I'd found out several years ago while sketching small muslim children in a mountain village in Bali.

Chantal Joffe in her studio

The article described how Chantal Joffe is designing 20 images of people in a bold cut-out style for Whitechapel Station.



This is intended to be a sort of modern-day Matisse expression of the people on the streets above the station at Whitechapel.

I know the area very well - it's just down the road from where I live.

There is a very active street market outside the station, directly opposite the Royal London Hospital. Almost all the stalls are run by local men of Bengali heritage - within the context of an area which in the past was traditionally Jewish for decades (and Joffe has a Jewish heritage) but is now completely dominated by

• the community and multi-cultural visitors to the very large teaching hospital; and 
• past migration from Bangladesh to the area. 
• the enormous East London Mosque and London Muslim Centre a little further down the road - which reflects the numbers attending.

I guess it's one of the areas which President Trump might not want to visit if he ever succeeds in visiting London in an official capacity. He certainly seems to indulge in periodically being rude about it. The local Council voted to ban him from visiting Tower Hamlets last week!

The thing which puzzled me greatly was the notion of representing the people of the area.

That's because back in the early 90s a young boy stopped me from sketching his younger brother.  I hadn't set out to sketch him - I was just surrounded by children in a market in Bedugal in Bali as I tried to sketch the market and the people around and about.

He explained to me that he was a muslim and his religion meant that I could not draw him or his family.  He was very nice about it - and I erased the drawing of his brother.

I'm guessing you've probably guessed by now why I decided to write this blog post.

Old Flo has left Yorkshire and is on her way back to East End

Henry Moore’s bronze sculpture Draped Seated Woman - known in the East End as "Old Flo" - has been lifted from the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and is on her way back to the London Borough of Tower Hamlets from whence she came.

Still from BBC video A Henry Moore statue loaned to sculpture park starts journey

Below I've set out the details of when's she expected home and the display that is being held in her honour

I've been following this story over the last five years in a number of blog posts (see below). This will be the fifth!

• Henry Moore Sculpture - a very poor precedent Nov 8, 2012 - This relates 
• the story behind the creation of Old Flo by Henry Moore; 
• her relationship with the borough of Tower Hamlets (where I live) and 
• the story behind the then Mayor's proposal to sell the sculpture sell the sculpture (he's since had to step down as Mayor and was banned from politics for 5 years) - and 
• why this was a really BAD IDEA!
• Old Flo - the end of the story? Jul 13, 2015 - the High Court determines that Old Flo really does belong to the Council to which it was originally given
• A new location for Henry Moore's "Old Flo" in the East End (2 June 2016) - which includes 'Old Flo - a timeline of mishap and malfeasance'
• Henry Moore's Old Flo to move to Canary Wharf (March 31, 2017) - as I predicted the only safe place for her in LBTH!

Leaving Yorkshire

This is the BBC video of Old Flo being lifted from her plinth where she's lived for the last 20 years inside the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

It'll be sad to see Henry Moore old Flo leave @YSPsculpture She's had the best view of the Valley! pic.twitter.com/mc6m7mm6G9

— Iain Wheeldon (@iainwheeldon) September 15, 2017

A fond goodbye to 'Old Flo': I think she'll miss the Yorkshire air & the beauty of Yorkshire Sculpture Park! @YSPsculpture @YSculpture #art pic.twitter.com/xipuVkwz1n

— Sandie Nicholson (@holmfirthphotos) September 26, 2017

Old Flo "opens" at Canary Wharf

Every time I go to Canary Wharf in the car I keep glancing into Cabot Square which is where she is supposed to end up - just in case she had turned up without any hoohah!

However it looks like we're getting the hoohah! So here are all the facts:

• She returns to the East End on 22 October 2017.
• She will be located in Cabot Square, overlooking Middle Dock and accessible to all who pass by.
• A programme of celebrations, education and outreach will be rolled out while Old Flo is at Canary Wharf. 
• Anyone who would like to receive updates on these activities is invited to contact Canary Wharf at oldflo@canarywharf.com.

Exhibition

There will be a display in the Community Gallery in Canada Place from 20 October to 2 January.  This will:

• celebrate the return of ‘Old Flo’ to Tower Hamlets 
• tell the story of how Henry Moore’s sculpture came to reside on the Stifford Estate is shown 

Canary Wharf Twitter @yourcanarywharf  needs to get its act together for welcoming her back to Tower Hamlets - not a tweet as yet. Meanwhile the politicians are all claiming they did it!

.@MayorJohnBiggs “I'm delighted #OldFlo is finally on her way back home to the people of the East End" https://t.co/5dyCOnk9Nr

— Tower Hamlets (@TowerHamletsNow) September 27, 2017

She's on her way! We've been campaigning for this moment for years. Henry Moore Blitz inspired 'Old Flo’ begins her journey back to us pic.twitter.com/5rEoUOaep6

— TH Conservatives (@THConservatives) September 27, 2017

#Bollart

There's a new challenge in town in Melbourne. The art of making art out of anti-terror concrete bollards.

I first came across it in this article Melbourne Is Responding To Its New Anti-Terror Bollards In The Most Melbourne Way Possible

So went to check it out on Twitter and found these

"D'aniel Andrews" strikes again, this time at Southern Cross. Bravo 👏#bollards #melbourne #bollart pic.twitter.com/TwXigLXzx0

— Hannah Francis (@han_francisco) 6 July 2017

Apparently the Lord Mayor of Melbourne is all in favour and has persuaded the street cleaners not to wash the art away

'Cool your jets': Lord Mayor tells cops street art on #Melbourne's safety bollards is fine https://t.co/QqMjvv1Urx #bollart #bollards

— Hannah Francis (@han_francisco) 5 July 2017

and even gives some streetcred of his own

One of the best things about being LM is that sometimes, if u are determined to do nothing, good things happen #BollArt credt @han_francisco pic.twitter.com/VQCUcpgMdq

— Robert Doyle (@LordMayorMelb) 4 July 2017

People are getting inventive - and even covering them up. There's a little bit of Damien Hirst coming to the fore with this one...

There's something special about this latest addition from David Gray ... one of the furry dots SQUEAKS! #fun #BollArt #bollards #melbourne pic.twitter.com/zmi3nE9nJ2

— Hannah Francis (@han_francisco) 4 July 2017

a couple of the original #bollardbandit's pieces gone, but a few have popped up in their place at sthn cross#bollards #melbourne #bollart pic.twitter.com/bGz8AVaKZL

— Hannah Francis (@han_francisco) 3 July 2017

There's a lot of chaps hard at work on their sewing machines

Meet some of Melbourne's bollard banditshttps://t.co/lXfHNQRQ3T#bollards #melbourne #bollart

— Hannah Francis (@han_francisco) 3 July 2017

We've even got people getting seriously sniffy about the quality of the cover-up

Dear Melbourne Artists
I know a dress maker that will teach you how to make a slip cover fit properly
SRSLY it's not hard#BollArt pic.twitter.com/CvnwjEdYjU

— Covfefe Carrick (@gcarrick) 8 July 2017

It can only be a matter of time before the knitters get going!

Fantastic decorated #bollards at @SthCrossStation #Melbourne. Anyone feel like #yarnbombing some? pic.twitter.com/pJoNJKHP2A

— Anna McAlister (@annammcalister) 29 June 2017

Overall the consensus is that the needs to be more of this

More of them!! #bollart #melbourne #australia #streetart https://t.co/tCPi5SlYny pic.twitter.com/95RLUXWqFm

— mike cuz (@cuz_mike) 7 July 2017

It can only be a matter of time before the #bollardbandit and #bollart moves continents....

Henry Moore's Old Flo to move to Canary Wharf

“Old Flo” will, in future, be hosted in Cabot Square in Canary Wharf. 

Henry Moore’s bronze sculpture Draped Seated Woman known in the East End as Old Flo is at last to return to London from the Yorkshire Sculpture Park where she went 'on holiday' in 1997 (for safe-keeping) and has admired the view and the sheep for the last 20 years since the wind-up of the Greater London Council's Residary Body.

Tower Hamlets Council this week announced the outcome of the process used to decide where the sculpture should go when it comes back to London.

Draped Seated Woman aka "Old Flo" in Yorkshire Sculpture Park
photography courtesy of John Reynolds - Some rights reserved

My previous blog posts on this topic are:

• Henry Moore Sculpture - a very poor precedent Nov 8, 2012 - This relates 
• the story behind the creation of Old Flo by Henry Moore; 
• her relationship with the borough of Tower Hamlets (where I live) and 
• the story behind the then Mayor's proposal to sell the sculpture sell the sculpture (he's since had to step down as Mayor and was banned from politics for 5 years) - and 
• why this was a really BAD IDEA!
• Old Flo - the end of the story? Jul 13, 2015 - all about why a High Court decision determined that LB Tower Hamlets did own the Moore statue after all
• A new location for Henry Moore's "Old Flo" in the East End
• announced that the Appeal Court had rejected LB Bromley's appeal and Tower Hamlets Council has been reconfirmed as the legal owner of the Henry Moore sculpture Draped Seated Woman. 
• includes a timeline of mishap and malfeasance in relation to the disposition of Old Flo.

As predicted in my last blog post - the ONLY sane option, in terms of a security blanket, at present is Canary Wharf.

There are - or should be - a minimum of two criteria for a new location for the sculpture:

• Moore's conditions of sale
• where the sculpture can be located and be safe from both vandalism and theft

In terms of safety, there's probably no question that the safest place which is accessible to the population of Tower Hamlets is probably what is now the private estate at Canary Wharf. It has its own security force which is active and vigilant. Nowhere else in the borough - with the possible exception of the Tower of London enjoys the same degree of security.

The threat of meltdown

The major consideration had to be the potential theft of the statue for its metal value.

The threat was not insignificant. It's a fate suffered by other Henry Moore Sculptures that have been "lifted" and stolen for their value as metal not art. Below are accounts of other bronze sculptures which have been stolen and melted down

• Theft of bronze statues linked to 'artworks for scrap' gang (The Independent May 2006)
• Mystery of the stolen Moore solved (The Guardian May 2009) - Bronze sculpture worth £3m was melted down and sold off as scrap for just £1,500, say police. This theft involved a massive sculpture, which weighed 2.1 tons and measured 3.6 metres in length - and was stolen from the home of the Henry Moore Foundation - which means they are well aware of what can be achieved by those who are most determined!
• Henry Moore bronze figure stolen from open-air sculpture park in Scotland (The Guardain October 2013) - Standing Figure taken from Glenkiln Sculpture Park in Lincluden Estate, which also features works by Rodin and Epstein

Finding a new location

Tower Hamlets Council's statement says

Three organisations put in bids to provide a home to the valuable artwork, for up to five years.

Following a detailed and independent scoring process, including representatives of the Henry Moore Foundation, it was agreed that Canary Wharf Group had set out the best plans to make Old Flo accessible to residents whilst ensuring the security of the renowned sculpture, amid fears that it could be stolen for its bronze metal value.

Without a high level of security the sculpture would not have been possible to insure.

However this might not be her last resting place.

The Mayor of Tower Hamlets indicates that she may be on the move again.

“Whilst I would have loved to see Old Flo returned to her old home in Stepney her considerable value means we’ve had to find her a safe and secure home for her for the next five years. My hope is after that she can move even closer into our community, possibly at the new Civic Centre in Whitechapel when it is complete. In the meantime Canary Wharf will be a great and accessible home for Old Flo allowing her to once again add to Tower Hamlets’ already enviable reputation as a creative and cultural borough.”

I'll just be glad to see her back in the borough!

For those wondering where Cabot Square is see the red marker sign on the map below.  It's a hop skip and a jump from the nice security men who are stationed at the roundabout monitoring coming and goings of all vehicles entering the estate.

More on this topic

• Henry Moore sculpture 'Old Flo' set for London return | BBC
• 'Old Flo' makes her way back to London from Yorkshire | The Guardian
• 'Old Flo' sculpture to return to Tower Hamlets as new Canary Wharf home confirmed | Evening Standard
• ‘Old Flo’ set to return to Tower Hamlets in new Canary Wharf site | East London Advertiser (yet another so-called local news report which just parrots the Council's press release!)

A new location for Henry Moore's "Old Flo" in the East End

It looks as if Henry Moore's "Old Flo"might finally be returning to the East End of London - and my home borough of Tower Hamlets.

That would also mean one of the oddest stories about ownership of a key piece of sculpture might also be drawing to a close.

"Old Flo" - Draped Seated Woman as she is formally known - has sat quietly in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park while various parties have lobbied on her behalf.

Old Flo at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park
(Photograph: John Lord | Creative Commons: Some rights reserved)

In the meantime this is the third of my posts about this story.  The two prior to this are:

• Henry Moore Sculpture - a very poor precedent Nov 8, 2012 This relates the story the creation of Old Flo; her relationship with the borough and the story behind the then Mayor's proposal to sell the sculpture sell the sculpture. I cited six reasons why this was a really bad idea in relation to public ownership of art by famous artists - and this work in particular.
• It's worth noting that Lutfur Rahman is now the ex-Mayor of Tower Hamlets after being discredited in the High Court and expelled from office - followed by personal bankruptcy and a further Court Case which indicates he and his wife lied to the Court about his assets. 
• One is left wondering how much of the money from the proposed sale would have actually benefited the population of Tower Hamlets. As opposed to "friends" of the ex-Mayor given the apparent extent of corruption that is still being uncovered and  reported to LBTH Council (which explains to this Council Taxpayer why the Commissioners are still in charge of the Council!)
• Old Flo - the end of the story? Jul 13, 2015 Provided an update on the story and four key things which had happened to stop the sale including a High Court decision that Tower Hamlets did own the Moore statue after all

Old Flo - a timeline of mishap and malfeasance

1957-8 - Draped Seated Woman - cast in bronze - was created by Henry Moore

Old Flo on the Stifford Estate

1962 - bought by London County Council (LCC) from Henry Moore. Located on the Stifford Estate in Stepney

1963 - LCC abolished and its functions transferred to the Great London Council (GLC) and the local borough. The land and buildings comprising the Stifford Estate in Stepney were transferred to the new Tower Hamlets Council - which incorporated the former Stepney Borough Council.

1985 - GLC Dissolved. The sculpture was not listed in the 1963 Order, and so remained the property of the GLC until its dissolution in 1985.

1996 - all the remaining assets of the GLC transferred to the LB Bromley as the residuary body.

1997 - Old Flo moved to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park for 'safe-keeping' while a new location was found

May 2010 - Lutfur Rahman elected Mayor of Tower Hamlets

October 2012 - Mayor Rahman announced the proposed sale of Old Flo would be put up for sale by auction. Subsequently he confirmed his decision to sell the sculpture without paying any attention to the representations of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee or any of the other representations made on this matter.

November 2012 - the protest began. The campaign to keep Old Flo from being auctioned off (as an item of public art) was active and vociferous.  3,000 people signed a petition to Save Old Flo and to keep the sculpture in Tower Hamlets.

December 2012 - London Borough of Bromley wrote to Tower Hamlets Council to assert ownership of Old Flo and applied for an injunction to stop the sale.

May 2014: Mayor Rahman re-elected

July 2014 - Petition to the Electoral Court to review allegations of electoral fraud granted

Mark 2015 - Trail of Lutfur Rahman and his agent at the Electoral Court

April 2015 - Lutfur Rahman found personally guilty and guilty by his agents of corrupt and illegal practices. He was banned from holding public office for five years by the Electoral Court. New election ordered.

June 2015 - John Biggs was elected as the New Mayor following the former Mayor being disbarred from public office. It very soon became clear that a sale would not be pursued.

July 2015 - In Tower Hamlets LBC v Bromley LBC [2015] EWHC 1954 (Ch), the High Court confirmed LB Tower Hamlets as the legal owners of the sculpture.

Subsequently LB Bromley mounted an appeal of that decision.

19 May 2016 - The Appeal Court rejected Bromley's appeal and Tower Hamlets Council has been reconfirmed as the legal owner of the Henry Moore sculpture Draped Seated Woman.

For me the whole episode has thrown into high relief:

• just how unaccountable elected Mayors are compared to the previous arrangements for running local authorities.
• how fundamentally poor the current system is at rooting out those who are in politics for their own ends - and not for the wider public good.
• how vulnerable public art is to being sold for funds to run the Council - particularly when the man in charge falls way short of the standards that we ought to be able to expect of those in public office.  

Public Art needs to be protected from the asset strippers!

Henry Moore's sculpture was saved by inefficient bureaucracy

At the end of the day the only thing that saved Old Flo from sale was the vagaries of documentation relating to the transfer of assets and residuary functions when the GLC was dismantled.

It's just taken three and half years to resolve the question of ownership.

If the paperwork had been in order at the outset, Old Flo would have left public ownership at an Auction at Christies in February 2013!

The relocation challenge

Old Flo - the end of the story?

Back in 2012 I wrote Henry Moore Sculpture - a very poor precedent for public art about the proposal by the Mayor of my local Council to sell off the Henry Moore statue which Moore had personally gifted to the East End of London after the Second World War.

I cited six reasons why the proposal was a really bad idea in relation to public ownership of art by famous artists - and this work in particular.

"Old Flo" by Henry Moore
in situ on the Stifford Estate

The statue is officially called 'The Draped Seated Woman' but it has been colloquially called 'Old Flo' for a very long time

Old Flo was a symbol of hope and regeneration after the devastation of bombings in the area caused by WWII.

In brief the statue had originally been located on a GLC housing estate called the Stifford Estate.

That was until 1997 when it went 'on a holiday' to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (Winner of the Art Fund Museum of the Year in 2014) when the Stifford Estate was demolished.

You can see her enjoying the views in the bracing air up in Yorkshire below!

An Update on Old Flo

Since then four things have happened

1. The London Borough of Bromley tried to assert its ownership of the statue as the residual legatee of GLC property not defined in transfer documents on the demise of the GLC. Hence it applied for an injunction to stop the sale  - for which we thank Bromley! However it then took action to recover what it saw as its its property - in the absence of paperwork which proved LBTH's ownership.  Tower Hamlets response was to stake its claim of ownership.
• New twist in row over ownership of Henry Moore's 'Old Flo'
• Ownership of Moore's Old Flo challenged by Bromley
2. The Electoral Court - meeting at the High Court - removed Lutfur Rahman from the office of Mayor. He was found to have "driven a coach and horses" through local authority law and "engaged in corrupt and illegal practices" to win elections. He was banned from holding political office for five years.  So his decision about the sale of Old Flo became largely redundant. See 
• Lutfur Rahman corruption verdict: Tower Hamlets mayor guilty of corruption and election result is declared void (Evening Standard) 
• Lutfur Rahman played the Islamophobia card to silence his critics. And too many on the left fell for it (The Independent) 
• Tower Hamlets: how a dictatorship flourished in the East End (The Guardian) 
3. A fresh election was run - and a new Mayor was elected - in June 2015. After which point it became clear that a sale would not be pursued.
4. The High Court found that Tower Hamlets did own the Moore statue after all. Last week the High Court determined that Tower Hamlets do own the statue.
• This is a summary of the decision
• This is an online file of the complete Judgement in The London Borough of Tower Hamlets Claimant- and -The London Borough of Bromley (in its capacity as successor to the London ResiduaryBody) (Defendant)

So where will the statue be located in future?

So is this the end of the story?  Is "Old Flo" actually returning to Tower Hamlets?

It certainly seems as if there is some incentive to get the statue back and to find a safe place for it to be displayed.

The new Mayor John Biggs has stated

“I am delighted Tower Hamlets has been confirmed as owner of Old Flo. I want to reiterate my intention to reverse the previous mayor’s decision to sell Henry Moore’s sculpture, Draped Seated Woman. I believe that it belongs to the people of east London and should be available locally for public enjoyment.”

... with an emphasis on 'local' and 'people of East London'.

The Museum of London stated

“We feel passionately that Henry Moore intended this important artwork for the people of London and particularly the people of Tower Hamlets, which suffered so badly during the Blitz. The reason we opposed the sale so fervently was because it went against the intentions of the artist, and it risked going out of public view forever, into a private collection and possibly even abroad. Sending Old Flo to Yorkshire was the right thing to do at the time, as she had fallen into disrepair, the estate was bulldozed and she needed looking after, but now she's had her holiday, it’s time for her to come back home.”

Possible venues include the Museum in Docklands, Canary Wharf and the University of London's Queen Mary College in Mile End.

My vote is for the latter - with a location next to the Canal where she could be seen easily by everybody who walks up and down the Regents Canal.

Art Everywhere - on billboards around the UK

The Art Everywhere Exhibition 2013 opened on 12 August and can be seen on billboards around the UK until 25 August 2013.

There are 57 works of art on 22,000 poster sites around the country - and people are snapping them and posting them to the Art Everywhere Facebook Page.

This is the longlist of artworks in alphabetical order by surname of the artist which the public voted on to determine The Top Ten British Masterpieces and the 57 featured artworks in the exhibition.

Art Everywhere is organised by the Tate and The Art Fund.  This video which marks the launch of the exhibition explains what it's about.



Here's some comments about the execution:

• the use of billboards/poster sites to display publicly owned artwork to the nation is a brilliant idea.  The presentation - with a goodly amount of white space - means it should really get people noticing the art
• The information pages for each featured artwork are just enough to get read AND be informative.  Judge for yourself - this is Blotter by Peter Doig.  However it's a real pity they didn't do this for each and every artwork in the long list too.
• I like the fact that all the poster sites are interactive.  The information about every artwork can be accessed via an app - and you just need to hold up your app to the pic and it will tell you all about it.  To access the information you need to first download the free Blippr app - available from the iStore or Google Play.
• the use of #ArtEverywhere to share thoughts and snaps on Twitter and Instagram should mean news of it gets around!
• there's a further interactive opportunity through people posting snaps of posters found to the Facebook Page
• the map on the website doesn't work - it's just a hotch potch of flags from far too high a level.  To work properly it needs a zoom facility.

The Guardian are running a competition for those who can spot all 57 works of art.

Promoting a nation of art collectors?

This initiative follows on from the one I wrote about an installation of new art on the London Underground - Labyrinth - Art on the Underground by Mark Wallinger

The idea of creating a large enough number of artworks which are all publicly accessible and then encouraging people to find them and snap them - as if playing a game - is an interesting one.

The question is will it switch people on to the idea of collecting art for real?

What do you think about this and similar initiatives?  Have you spotted a work of art near you?

More about art in the UK

My websites provide one bookmark for access to details about the top art galleries and museums in the UK

• Top 10 Art Galleries and Museums in the World - Did you know that five of the top 20 art galleries and museums in the world are in London?
• The Top Ten Museums in London

Henry Moore Sculpture - a very poor precedent for public art

Lutfur Rahman, the controversial/discredited Mayor of Tower Hamlets has ignored the concerns raised by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, a petition, and protests on a wide scale and confirmed his personal decision to sell a Henry Moore sculpture which is owned by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

Note that this was NOT a decision of the Council - this was a decision of the Mayor.

Ostensibly the Mayor intends to raise funds for the borough to help address budgets cuts.  However straight after the decision was taken, it was also alleged that he also has plans to give money to local mosques in order to buy votes (see Why Lutfur wants to sell Old Flo).  Doubtless we'll hear more on that score in due course.

Draped Seated Woman (1957) by Henry Moore
Bronze - Currently located within Yorkshire Sculpture Park

The story of "Old Flo"

The sculpture in question is a very large bronze called Draped Seated Woman.

Cultural Olympiad 2012 - Artists taking the lead

You may have heard London is hosting the Olympics next year.  What you may not be aware of is that there is also a Cultural Olympiad 2012 - the culmination of which is the London 2012 Festival.

Below you'll find details of the 12 projects which relate to the Artists Taking the Lead strand of these cultural events.

The Boat Project collect wood from the Olympic Park Velodrome

I'll be writing about other art projects of the Olympiad between now and 2012.