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.

You too can bring joy to peoples lives, click here and leave a suggested caption for today’s YesBut’s Image.

YesBut watch the birdie

People have been kind enough to complement YesBut’s photographer on the photographs published on YesBut’s Images, and have asked how he goes about getting the shots. He tells me it’s very simple in London point the camera in any direction and you get a good photograph. Whether it’s a building or tourists. Tourists!! Last week I was walking north along Tower Bridge; three women were standing across the entrance to the stairs down to St Katharine’s Dock.

“Excuse me you are blocking the stairway, I would like to get past”.

”It’s alright we’re on vacation”.

Tourists are totally oblivious of other people.

Back to YesBut’s photographer, he says he has more difficulty, when not in London. He had a particularly difficult time when visiting Holland - not the place to go to photograph mountains! But he sees it as a challenge. He says since he has been looking for things to photograph he has become more observant, and also has improved his reflex actions. Reflex actions? Yes, when there is a dearth of things to photograph, every opportunity must be taken - it’s no good saying, “I’ll come back later” - later rarely comes.

Talking about lost opportunities, today is the last day to post a caption for the photos posted on YesBut’s Images on 21st to 27th July.

So put on your thinking cap and think up captions.

But your participation doesn’t end there. It’s up to you to select the Caption of the Week. Your vote of the best and runner-up caption should be posted on YesBut’s Images blog by midnight Sunday 29th July.

To remind you of the rules:

• Visit the blog and review the captions for the postings 21st to 27th July inclusive.
• Select your wining caption and runner up
• Post your choices on the blog (some times contributors submit more than one caption each day; so please clearly identify which caption you are nominating).
• Voting will close at midnight GMT Sunday 29th July.

First nominations will be given 2 point, 2nd nominations 1 point. The caption having the highest total of points will be awarded the “Caption of the Week Award“.

Results will be posted on this blog and YesBut’s Images.

Join in the fun cast your vote even better post a caption - click here.

Potters Fields

Within the shadow of London's Tower Bridge there is a patch of grass and dirt which obtained a degree of notoriety in 2003 as the site chosen by David Blaine to spend 44days without food, in a suspended Perspex box. For the period, the 30 year old magician was taunted and ridiculed by Londoners and tourists alike.

Then last year the area was fenced off and a sign put up announcing to the world:

“Potters Fields is about to be transformed.
A new design to create a world class park. . .”

Three million pounds was allocated for the project. My imagination raced away trying to imagine what the world class park would look like. Would it be a safari park, with herds of wilderbeasts, lions and giraffes? At dusk tourists could sit out on the hunting lodge’s balcony drinking their gin & tonic watching the animals comedown to the watering hole. Or it might match the grandeur of New York’s Central Park, or London’s Hyde Park with a boating lake and expanse of green lush grass.

Progress on the construction was slow. Small areas could be viewed through viewing holes in the surrounding fence, puzzlingly the activity didn’t quite equate with what would be expected for the creation of a world class park.

Then the fence was removed, and all was revealed.

Please control your excitement and anticipation, YesBut's ace photographer has been sent post haste to the new park, and the photographs will be posted on the blog tomorrow.

Iconic Images of the World

Two days ago I wrote about the iconic buildings of London, deliberately leaving out The iconic image. What are the buildings or geographical features that are universally recognised as iconic images?

Let’s start in the USA: the Golden Gate Bridge, the Grand Canyon and Mount Rushmore, are on the list; but surely the abiding images are the Manhattan Skyline and of course The Statue of Liberty. For over 120 years the statute has represented hope and a promise that the future can be better. It was the first site of America seen by millions of European emigrants. During the period of the two World Wars it was an image of friendship and support. In the World of 24 hour rolling TV news, the power of a single image is transitory; it will be interesting to see what if any message the Statue of Liberty will convey in the future.

In South America the two great geographical features, the Andes Mountain Range and the great Amazon River are not visual icons. The image must be the statue inaugurated in 1931, standing 125feet high on top of the Sugarloaf Mountain with its out stretched arms looking over Rio de Janeiro, its Crisco Redentor. The art deco styled statue of Christ the Redeemer.


Let’s cross the Atlantic Ocean to Europe to London, the most recognisable image of London must be Tower Bridge. What a structure, both beautiful and absurd; but above all practical. At the time it was opened in 1894 the Pool of London was the busiest port in the World; so any bridge constructed had to allow access to the pool, hence the bascule design with the opening central span, (in the first year of operation it was opened 6160 times). Due to the frequent opening of the bridge an upper pedestrian walkway was incorporated in the design. However pedestrians preferred to wait and watch the ships pass under the bridge. Unused the upper walkway became the haunt of prostitutes; being 290 feet above the River Thames it became the location for people to choose to jump to their death. It is now part of the exhibition of the bridge’s history.

In 1968 London Bridge was replaced, the old bridge was sold for US$2.5 million to Havasu City, Arizona; it is rumoured that when they unpacked the crates they were surprised to find only blocks of stone - they thought they were buying Tower Bridge, which is incorrectly called London Bridge by tourists.

Other European icons: in Paris the Eiffel Tower and standing above Montmartre the white Basilica of the Sacre Coeur. Obviously St Mark’s Square and the canals of Venice.

Africa? A one time icon which has faded metaphorically from view Table Top Mountain, Cape Town South Africa. The two icons which will remain prominent and located within tourist walking distance from each other: the Great Sphinx of Giza and Khafre’s pyramid. The Sphinx was a common image seen in books from childhood, what a surprise I had when I stood before it thirty years ago to see how small it is - and they say the camera never lies!

So to Asia, and another structure which looks deseavingly large in photographs, but whose diminished size in reality doesn’t detract from its beauty. Constructed in Agra between 1632 to 1648 by Emperor Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his wife Queen Mumtaz Mahal, the white marbled Taj Mahal is beyond description. It was the Shah’s intention to have an identical black mausoleum built for himself on the opposite bank of the Yamuna River, but he was betrayed by his son Aurangzeb.

Other Asian icons: The Great Wall of China and Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

In Australia, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and in its shadows one of the most distinctive buildings of the 20th century the Sydney Opera House. If the UK has an abysmal record of constructing public buildings on-time and on-budget, it diminishes into insignificance compared to the tortured history of the Opera House construction. Not only did its Danish architect Jon Luzon resign (never to visit the completed building), but for a decade the Government of New South Wales was thrown into turmoil.

What of 21st century icons? Will buildings constructed in Dubai, Shanghai and other cities become icons? Only time will tell.