Chambers Wharf, London
Chambers Wharf: Waveform, Leo Fitzmaurice
Year
In development
Client
fereday pollard for Tideway
Artist
Leo Fitzmaurice
Service
Commission Management
Location
Chambers Street, Bermondsey, London
A permanent commission for the riverside walk at the Tideway site Chambers Wharf.
Leo Fitzmaurice, has responded to the site-specific narrative about global movements of goods and people through a semi-abstract sculptural piece, ‘Waveform’ that can accommodate and stimulate many open-ended readings around the idea of a wave.
Physically, the work references historic nautical structures and objects, in particular the ship’s bell, both as an object and an iconic nautical sound. The artist is interested in the range of waveforms associated with ship’s bells, which strongly relate to the outline of a bell itself. By rotating this outline through 180 degrees in space, the artist has started to visualise this sound-waveform as an object. As with all of the permanent commissions for Tideway, the artist’s proposal responds to the site’s history as set out in Tideway’s Heritage Interpretation Strategy.
The Bermondsey neighbourhood has been shaped by a continuing international influx of people – not just the massive influence from slavery, but migrations due to war, famine and hardship, often connected in some way to the spread of the British Empire. Through his research Leo saw this demographic process like a returning wave, or echo, mirroring the expansion of the British Empire.
“I though it both satisfying and apposite that all my research could be contained in a simple form that would provoke thought about digital sound visualisation and nautical history, simultaneously. ”
A fundamental characteristic of this global movement is that many individuals moved to the area by ship, with little else than the clothes they were wearing. Inevitably, other elements of their culture became more important: stories, music and food contributed to an identity and history that could be retained when everything else had gone. In a way this is a culture, or mix of cultures, typified by its lack of a physical presence – for the artist, a free trade of culture, rather than objects.
The artist explored the impact of this phenomenon on London’s popular culture and particularly its music; from soul, blues, gospel and jazz drawing on the influences of African slaves, to house, techno and grime. Visualisations of sound through graphic equalisers and other outputs also led to waveforms.
The waveform piece therefore combines the site’s maritime history with the area’s contemporary culture, where the wave – not an object, but a moving energy – can be interpreted as the flow and development of ideas and culture moving through the medium of the port city and its river.
The work is nuanced and open-ended and allows for freedom of interpretation by many groups from different backgrounds. It is thought-provoking and capable of revealing hidden stories and meanings, deepening people’s understanding and expanding horizons. It fulfils the aspirations to link history with cultural values of relevance today.
The piece takes the form of a cast bronze bell-like form, reminiscent of a ship’s bell and of soundwave shapes, approximately 500mm in diameter, fixed to a bespoke white-painted steel ‘mast’ some 4m high which takes its cue from typical nautical structures. The surrounding public realm scheme will not be completed by Tideway, but as part of a future residential development by others
“I started think about the physical form that this idea could take. So creating a ‘digital-form’ of the bell-waveform using stacked circular sheets of bronze, combining the historic referenced of bronze ships bells, with contemporary cultural references of digital waveforms.”
Leo Fitzmaurice’s practice has evolved into the strategic intervention of existing objects, materials and situations. Developing an interest for non-gallery environments, he has co-organised influential projects such as All in the Mind, presented inside a disused mental asylum, and Up In the Air/Further Up in the Air, where Liverpudlian Tower Blocks and their residents, became the context for artists and writers to create and present new works.
He won the Northern Art Prize in 2011, and has exhibited both in the UK and abroad. His works are included in a variety of public collections. Leo Fitzmaurice is represented by The Sunday Painter.
For more information see:
www.tideway.london