Memorial day - 9

Each Wednesday this blog is dedicated to looking at memorials and public sculptures - objects we might pass in our daily lives, without considering either their artistic merit or the story lying behind the commissioning of the work.

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"Full Stop Slipstream" is a bronze sculpture by Fiona Banner. It is one in a series of site-specific giant full stops produced for the More London site near Tower Bridge, London. Each sculpture represents a full stop from different fonts: Courier, Chancery, Century, etc.

The sculptures are very much part of the More London complex. As can be seen from the photograph it interacts both with the architecture and the general public passing through the site. The leaning sculpture counter balancing the abstract shaped City Hall.

Fiona Banner was born in Merseyside in 1966 and studied at Goldsmiths College. In 2003 she was short listed for the Turner Prize; one of the most prestigious awards for visual arts in Europe.

All too often, public works of art are ignored by passers by, this can not be said of Banner’s Full Stop. Standing in the middle of the riverside walkway, the leaning sculpture screams out to passers-by “touch me, push me upright”. Since its installation in 2003 thousands of photographs have been taken each year of tourists leaning against, or pushing the sculpture. I doubt that they consider the artistic merits of the work. But is that really important? Surely it serves its purpose by bring joy into peoples lives.

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YesBut a world class park?

As promised yesterday, YesBut’s ace photographer was sent to photograph the park recently constructed at Potters Field.

So this is what More London promised to be a “world class park”. I have seen more exciting looking window-boxes.

No giraffes, lions or wilderbeasts not even a rabbit or teddy bear and certainly no hunting lodge - how disappointing. And where is the boating lake? This is another case where, a design looks great on paper, (more likely computer), but when it’s built people say “are you joking this cost £3million?”. The trees they planted must be an extremely rare species - perhaps they were hand reared by vestal virgins in the heart of the Amazon forest.

The words “World class design” have been used in reference to the 2012 London Olympic facilities. The mind shudders at the thought of what we will get for +£9.0 billion. Perhaps the athletic track will be white washed lines painted in the local park.

Don’t even think of using Potters Field as an Olympic venue, unless marbles or tiddlywinks become Olympic sports. I can see now a line of little children marching with plastic buckets full of sand to construct a long jump pit. Though they will require men with barrows to collect enough sand for the beach volley ball venue. Where will they get the sand? Well at low tide on the south bank of the River Thames between Waterloo and Blackfriars bridges a strip of sand is exposed, (there is a seven metre difference in height between high and low water in central London each tide). Sorry Mr Sand Artist I guess you’ll be losing your sand in 2012.

Click here to see more photos of the world class park