- Venue
- Spalding Town Centre
- Starts
- Friday, April 22, 2016
- Ends
- Sunday, December 31, 2017
- Address
- An art trail in and around the town centre of Spalding, Lincolnshire, England.
- Location
- East England
- Organiser
- Spalding & District Civic Society and the Town of Spalding
From those who run fruit and vegetable markets to those working in the food packing plants, those tending the land on local farms or tending the check-outs in independent shops, sculptor Joseph Hillier captures the residents of a small, Lincolnshire market town exploring its heritage and inherited culture…
April 22nd 2016 sees the opening of a new 14 part artwork ‘Portrait of a town : Spalding’, by Joseph Hillier. The piece which has been commissioned by Transported with Spalding & District Civic Society who describe the work as an ‘art trail’ around the historic Lincolnshire town of Spalding, is designed to enhance the cultural landscape for locals and visitors alike.
Hillier, has created a series of bronze cast sculptures that will be displayed throughout the town. The fourteen 20cm x 20cm miniature artworks will be installed in alleyways, side-streets and unassuming locations around the town centre – and are designed to intrigue, “I’d like people to consider the portraits,” explains Hillier, “there’s a story, a family, a life behind each work, and together they depict the town of Spalding, as a group portrait, reflecting the complexity of the place.”
Asked to celebrate the ‘market town’ status of Spalding, and in particular the hiring fair that once took place in the town, (that being the tradition of men, women and children being bought and sold, typically as farmhands) Hillier deliberately chose to focus not on the past, but on the workers of the present, and purposefully chose to work in bronze sculpture as a way of questioning how we think of statues in public spaces.
“The traditional bronze statue would celebrate the so-called great and worthy, instead, I sought to celebrate the ordinary people I encountered and the work that quietly goes on all the time in and around Spalding.” Hillier describes these works as “contemporary pastoral vignettes”, capturing members of the Spalding community chosen after Hillier spent a summer with the residents and studying photographic archives held in Ayscoughfee Hall one of the town’s two museums.
Each sculpture was first created using 3D scanning and printing technology and when finalised, was later cast using ancient bronze-casting techniques, a highly skilled form of sculptural work Hillier has used sporadically throughout his career since graduating art school in New Orleans in 2003.
The human form regularly features in the sculptural work of Joseph Hillier, so it was natural that it was the people of Spalding that featured so prominently in this commission. It was through his time spent in the town during the summer of 2015 that Hillier began to understand the diverse culture that has developed in this pocket of Lincolnshire, and just how essential that diversity has been to its heritage. The commission comes at a time when the United Kingdom is preparing for a referendum on whether to stay within the European Union, a pertinent discussion when considering the microcosm of Spalding, Hillier continues “the interesting thing about this part of the country is that it was once marshland. With Dutch migrants bringing their expertise to the area, the land was reclaimed, so it could be inhabited and farmed. Since then, successive populations, nationalities and individuals from all over Europe have made Spalding their home. I have met and portrayed, English, Latvian and Lithuanian’s all living and working in Spalding ”
The sculptures will be unveiled this Friday 22nd April and will be situated around the town for visitors to enjoy for the foreseeable future.
For more information visit: https://spaldingportrait.wordpress.com
