HOFS-Centric
HOFS-Centric, an installation utilising the former training tower at Hadleigh Old Fire Station, aimed to be a beacon joining aspects of the HOFS building's former and current usage. The tower was dressed in almost a thousand recycled CDs, collected from local groups and individuals, into which patterns were worked, drawn from local references and routes in and around Hadleigh.
The artwork on the tower, an island between the two sections of the A13 London Road, was a visual reference point, alluding to the towers of Hadleigh Castle, which acted as a beacon to ships approaching London. Illuminated at night, it emphasised the contrast between light and dark of the CD patterning, to help to create a cultural focus for Hadleigh Old Fire Station. The installation was in place between April and October 2013.
HOFS-Centric was commissioned by ACAVA, as part of Hadleigh in Place, a year-long, multi-disciplinary arts programme which aimed to reveal and re-imagine the unusual, personal and special characteristics of Hadleigh and its environs. The project sought to capture and express the unique nature of place through five artists’ residencies and commissions. The programme was supported by Arts Council England and Essex County Council.
The artwork on the tower, an island between the two sections of the A13 London Road, was a visual reference point, alluding to the towers of Hadleigh Castle, which acted as a beacon to ships approaching London. Illuminated at night, it emphasised the contrast between light and dark of the CD patterning, to help to create a cultural focus for Hadleigh Old Fire Station. The installation was in place between April and October 2013.
HOFS-Centric was commissioned by ACAVA, as part of Hadleigh in Place, a year-long, multi-disciplinary arts programme which aimed to reveal and re-imagine the unusual, personal and special characteristics of Hadleigh and its environs. The project sought to capture and express the unique nature of place through five artists’ residencies and commissions. The programme was supported by Arts Council England and Essex County Council.
The photograph shown here, by photographer Anna Lukala, were commissioned by ACAVA to document the project, Taken over a period of several weeks at differing times of day, the images show the relationship between the work and the changing light and weather. Also included are images taken from the top of the tower, demonstrating its scale and the various construction features.
Reduce, re-use, recycle
A key aspect of HOFS-Centric was devising an approach that would incorporate either materials which could be reused after the project, or that would otherwise have been discarded as landfill. The following section will add information as the de-installed materials are remade into new constructions or recycled.
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- CDs/DVDs: approximately 1200 (around 18kg) were collected with the support of local groups and individuals, including Castle Point Borough Council, SoSlug (thanks to Derek Shaw), TAP Studios and HOFS. Currently these cannot be collected by local councils through kerbside recycling. 9kg of broken CDs and cases were sent to a specialist recycling plant after construction and following de-installation, a further 10kg was removed from the meshes and sent to the same facility.
- CD/DVD card & paper covers and inserts: 3.5kg were separated out from donations and recycled via council facilities. - Debris netting: small offcuts were donated to a local community arts project Chatterbox, on display at Village Green during July '13. The mesh on the tower has been used as part of a walk-in fruit cage constructed by Brian Hickey from HOFS, used for raspberry bushes. - Aluminium supporting frame: In addition to Brian's fruit cage, smaller framework pieces were made into a folding bean support stand, which has provided mange tout, sweet peas and runner beans. |
- Light: the internal light was custom built for the project by Mark Miller of CEM Electrical, a local small business. Mark's expertise allowed us to use outdoor LEDs on a constructed framework, to make a light that used very little energy. It was additionally controlled by timers within HOFS to ensure most effective use over 6 months.
The Hadleigh environs have a historical relationship with waste and salvage including examples such as building materials for the Salvation Army Colony (obtained from salvage, brought by Thames sailing barge from the Army's wharf at Battersea), to the exchange of bricks and refuse (barges from London loaded with cargoes of chalk for brick making and house garbage for burning, returning with the brick loads) to sea walls built with landfill cores. Two Tree Island (site for the first installation of AWSoM) was reclaimed from the sea in the 18th Century and used for rough grazing until 1910 when a sewage farm was built on its eastern side. In 1936 Southend Borough Council acquired the whole island and used it as a rubbish tip until the 1970s; it is now an Essex Wildlife Trust nature reserve, with the former rubbish tip supporting a number of alien plants and 'escapes'.
The Hadleigh environs have a historical relationship with waste and salvage including examples such as building materials for the Salvation Army Colony (obtained from salvage, brought by Thames sailing barge from the Army's wharf at Battersea), to the exchange of bricks and refuse (barges from London loaded with cargoes of chalk for brick making and house garbage for burning, returning with the brick loads) to sea walls built with landfill cores. Two Tree Island (site for the first installation of AWSoM) was reclaimed from the sea in the 18th Century and used for rough grazing until 1910 when a sewage farm was built on its eastern side. In 1936 Southend Borough Council acquired the whole island and used it as a rubbish tip until the 1970s; it is now an Essex Wildlife Trust nature reserve, with the former rubbish tip supporting a number of alien plants and 'escapes'.
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The junk_space talk where we discussed HOFS-Centric & upcycling/re-purposing within art took place on Oct 10th, 7pm, at HOFS). Full details in the file on the left; thank you to everyone who came along & to event organiser, Sue Willis.
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At the end of May 2013, HOFS hosted a series of events relating to all five commissions. See the attachments below for further details.
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