Friday, February 22, 2008

A bit of Controversy

Last week we went for a walk along a section of the Cauldon Canal that we hadn't been on before. As you know from previous posts we've walked quite a bit of both the Cauldon and the Trent and Mersey Canals in the last couple of years but this stretch was new to us. We parked close to the canal at Stockton Brook and joined the path going towards the city. The paths were quite good to walk on and as it was a lovely sunny day there were plenty of walkers out and about. At the beginning of the walk we found two rather interesting sculptures and paused to cross the canal and take a closer look at them.

As you can see they are made up of different images in different mediums all to represent the industries and well known connections of Stoke-on-Trent. There are bottle ovens, pieces of pottery, cups and saucers, bowls as well as Reginald Mitchell's Spitfire and the porthole presumably because Captain John Smith of the Titanic came from Stoke too.

Unfortunately the glaze from one of the embedded pots was frost shattered and the two people who looked at the sculpture before us placed the piece on top of the sculpture. I hope it will be found and mended before too long.

As we walked away from the sculpture across the bridge we were stopped by a couple out walking who wanted to know what we thought of the sculpture. We discussed its merits for a while and it appeared that the cost of the sculptures and the pathways had been around twenty thousand pounds. The couple approved of the new pathways but were quite scathing about the sculptures - for three reasons. Firstly because they didn't think they fitted in on the canalside, secondly they thought the embedded pots were 'naff' (their word) in that they were not indicative of the beautiful pottery and china made here but rather cheap and tawdry looking and thirdly they didn't like the fact that British Waterways had used a non local sculptor, but one who has done work for them on other canals in England and Wales.

The sculptor is Anthony Lysycia whom the couple had met and pronounced a very nice chap but felt that there were local sculptors who could have done just as well.

As we left them to carry on with our walk I was thinking about what they had said about the sculptures particularly with regard to the embedded pots. It would have been a shame to use anything other than ordinary, everyday pottery as it may eventually be vandalised (I sincerely hope not but we are living in strange times at the moment) and also for every beautiful piece of Wedgwood, Doulton or Minton made over the years there have been far more everyday wares made, maybe cheap and 'naff' to some but full of interest to others.

The second sculpture was bathed in dappled light and shadows so was harder to photograph but had a similar theme to the other one. So it would seem that some of the residents of Stockton Brook are reserving judgment on the sculptures and are concerned that the grants of money have been used in this way. I wonder?

7 comments:

  1. Hello Rosie
    I've seen the sculptures too and I rather like them or their prupose at least. They don't massively float my boat but its good to see some artisitc reinterpretation of the city's industrial heritage, and especially on the canalside where people passing thorugh may discover a little more about what a truly creative city Stoke was, and still is (although you have to look quite hard for it nowadays!)It is a shame that a local sculptor wasn't used and it does sound a lot of money but then these grants are avaiable for only one purpose, its impossible to divert a arts funding into say wildlife conservation so I say take advantage! Thanks for posting such an interestign topic. Love your cat and the tulips pic btw and sorry your house move isn't moving very fast.
    Best wishes
    Stephx

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  2. Hi Steph, like you, I like them but wouldn't rave about them, as you say if it makes the people who pass through think about the wonderful things that have come out of Stoke then it will help enhance it's image. I get the feeling from the conversation we had that the man we spoke too may have been a local sculptor - but I may be wrong - just a hunch.

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  3. I've just come across your comment on Anthony Lysycia's work on the Stockton Brook locks. I did a blog post about it only last week and I thought I was the first to mention it. Not so, obviously! But that's because you referred to it as the 'Cauldon Canal' and everyone in boating knows it as the 'Caldon Canal'

    So my searches for something about it earlier never popped up!

    See:
    http://www.grannybuttons.com/granny_buttons/2008/08/sculptures-at-s.html

    Best wishes
    Andrew Denny

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  4. I've just come across your comment on Anthony Lysycia's work on the Stockton Brook locks. I did a blog post about it only last week and I thought I was the first to mention it. Not so, obviously! But that's because you referred to it as the 'Cauldon Canal' and everyone in boating knows it as the 'Caldon Canal'

    So my searches for something about it earlier never popped up!

    See:
    http://www.grannybuttons.com/granny_buttons/2008/08/sculptures-at-s.html

    Best wishes
    Andrew Denny

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  5. Hello Andrew, I'll certainly have a look at your blog - thanks for pointing out the spelling of Caldon/Cauldon - I've seen it both ways but I guess the 'u' less one is correct:) I thought it had something to do with Cauldon Low.

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  6. Hello all,

    I have just seen your comments and as I am the sculptor, I thought you may find this interesting.

    I agree with the comments about not using fine pottery in the sculpture but unfortunately I expected some vandalism and therefore I used 'naff' pottery. Sure enough after a week or so the ceramic pieces were smashed. However the cement I used to fill the pottery was still intact and this indicated the shapes before being vandalised. It's always sad when your work is trashed but you have to live in hope and try to make sculptures that people will enjoy.

    I have produced many sculptures up and down the UK and although not from the Stoke area (I was born in Lancashire) I employed a man from Derbyshire to build the stone wall and position all my carvings onto place. Many of the smaller carved blocks were made by local children.

    Part of the brief was to work with local schools and although a local sculptor may have been found, they may not have been qualified, or wish to work with children. About 40% of my time was spent working with local schools, carving several small pieces in the schools. There are some great sculptors working in the UK but many refuse to work with schools.

    Why did I decide to build 2 walls? British Waterways were very reluctant about having any heavy stone being moved about or indeed any heavy machinery on the canal side in case of accidents or damage. Therefore I had to carry every single piece of carved stone, and the stone/sand/cement used to build the wall by hand across the foot bridge!

    The fee was under £18k for all the work, out of which I have to pay all materials, pay for the walls to be built and all the school work comes out of the same fund. By the time tax is taking into account.....

    Put it this way, I am still driving an eight year old transit van!

    Thank you for taking the time to look and comment about my work.

    regards,

    Anthony

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Anthony - it was fascinating to read your account of creating the sculptures - as you can see from the date of my post Feb 2008 it is quite some time ago and I haven't seen the sculptures since so don't know what condition they are in. I see that I had surmised that more ordinary wares had been used because of the possibility of vandalism and eventual weathering. I also said in my post that probably far more ordinary wares had been made in Stoke than the well known top quality ones like Wedgwood and etc so it was a good reflection of that. Thank you for leaving a comment here:)

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