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Welcome to
In 2004 Optima engaged three artists to work with residents to create a plan for art works in the public spaces in Attwood Green. Inspired by the idea of representing the local community as a galaxy, they planned to use the medium of light to highlight routes and key destinations in the area.
Three years on two artworks designed by Nayan Kulkarni in partnership with residents have been put in place. The first, on the Five Ways estate is made up of a series of reflective discs and neon lights mounted on the gable ends of blocks. Reflecting the sun by day and the neon lights at night, the discs mark the walkways on the estate. Printed on the discs is a poem by Birmingham's poet Laureate, Dreadlock Alien, using words gathered from residents and young people.
The second artwork called the Sky Mirror is sited in Sunset Park at the heart of our estate. Designed as a shallow spherical pool that reflects the sky, when drained, it becomes a stage for outdoor events. A steel slope curves up from the park to a viewing platform above the platform which can also function as a modern day bandstand.
The Optima art project
was established in 2000 with a successful grant from the Arts Council
of England
with the aim to integrate the arts into Optima’s
regeneration programme.
Nayan Kulkarni is now working with artists and residents to design four more constellation route schemes for Lee Bank, Woodview and Benmore estates.
The
aim of the art programme is to establish new networks
and develop existing structures, which have a positive
impact on the regeneration of the cultural, social
and economic environment of the area.
The objectives of the art programme is to:
- improve
quality of the living environment through artistic
intervention in landscape of area
- develop
new learning opportunities and skills through community
involvement
- enhance the social, cultural
and physical environment of the neighbourhood
- develop long lasting links within
the community
What
are we going to do?
1. A series of temporary and
permanent arts installations and projects involving
the community through the project
called L.O.G - Light Observation Group.
2. A programme of community and youth arts events
3. A legacy document of personal histories and documentation
of community involvement in the artists’ residencies
over the 5-6 years the arts programme is in place
Constellations is the strategy for an ambitious programme of landmark artworks for the Attwood Green area of Birmingham, comprising the neighbourhood areas of Lee Bank, Woodview, Benmore and Fiveways and includes the major urban renaissance scheme Park Central.
The strategy was commissioned by Optima Community Association and was created by three artists, Lucy Orta, Nayan Kulkarni and Jorge Orta. The artists, known collectively as the Light Observation Group (LOG), have been working with the community of Attwood Green and with the urban master plan for the area since March 2004.
Download Optima Public Art Strategy
The artist’s were given the brief to work with the medium of light to develop routes and gateways across the area, allowing for the possibility of a unifying identity for the area to emerge. The artists’ response was to highlight strategic destination points sited around the area and the new developments.
Routes inspired by star constellations over Attwood Green will be represented as surface level light installations that will be stretched across desire lines and pathways converging into the focal point structural artworks, using light and formed to suggest planetary arrangements. These focal points will be community gateways and beacons designed to be visible above and beyond the city.
The intention is that the visuals contained in this proposal are sketches offering possibilities to be further developed to become unique to the site and the community closest to it through further workshops and consultation.
Lucy Orta
B. Sutton Coldfield 1966
Lucy spent all her childhood in the Midlands, studied BA fashion and Nottingham Trent Polytechnic and moved to Paris to work in fashion in 1991. She gave up fashion to dedicate her time to her artistic practice, which grown to international repute. Phaidon Press has recently published an extensive monograph on her work. Her sculptures, performance based work and community based projects have been shown in exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney and Tokyo, the Modern Art Museum in Paris. The Barbican, London will be holding the first retrospective of her work in September 2005. As well as a busy international career, Lucy holds a research post at the new University of the Arts, London. www.studio-orta.com
Nayan Kulkarni
B. Norwich 1969
Nayan spent his childhood in Brighton, Bombay and Zambia, and studied Sculpture at Birmingham School of Art (1993) and the Slade (1997). Nayan's artistic practice involves sculpture, architecture, video and photography. He has shown extensively in the UK and abroad, most recently in Lahore, Pakistan. Recent public projects include: At a glance, Lickey Hills Country Park, light installation for the Belgrave Baheeno Peepul Centre, Leicester, The refurbishment of The South Street Arts Centre, Reading, and an ambitious Art in Architecture proposal for the Bristol Broadmead Development.
Jorge Orta
B. Rosario, Argentina 1952
Trained as both an architect and a visual artist, Jorge moved to Paris in the mid-80’s to develop his public art on an international scale. He became a specialist in large-scale light projections that he named ‘Luminographic Painting’. He used this technique to paint the natural landscapes such as the Machu Picchu mountain range in Peru; Also Volcano in Japan and Cappadocia in Turkey as well as many mythical buildings around the world with symbols and images derived from in-depth community workshops conducted in each location. His work was honoured at the 1995 Venice Biennale where he projected large scale graffiti onto the canals and Venetian palaces, here the images were children’s drawings conducted with communities in South America. With his luminographic paintings, Jorge has recently inaugurated Lille European Cultural Capital 2004, and the World Transplant Games for transplant athletes in Nancy, where he also developed extensive public artworks for the city. www.studio-orta.com
Living Through: Personal Histories from Attwood Green
2002 - 2003 (c.)
In November 2002 Birmingham artists Vanley Burke (photographer) and Jackie Gay (writer) were invited to undertake a ‘guerrilla’ art project on the Lee Bank estate in central Birmingham. The idea was to try to capture and record aspects of a diverse group of lives, cultures, hopes and anxieties whilst the residents live through a period of huge upheaval and regeneration to their physical environment.
For more information, click here, to visit our Digital Ladywood website. |
 
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