Highland Village Art Installation
After nearly two years of design and planning and the best part of a year in carving and construction, I was finally able to finish the installation of this big project the day before deadline!
After tendering a proposal, my design visuals were shortlisted down to a selection of four artists. After a day’s public consultation the four designs were put to the local community to vote on. I’m very grateful that the result of the public vote favoured my design suggestions.
The brief
The brief provided by the Newtonmore Business Association stated –
The main purpose is to create a focal point in the village of Newtonmore that will help promote the village, community and commerce.
Key elements that we wish to be part of the artwork would be:
- People
- Shinty
- Walking
- Gaelic & Heritage
- Sense of History
- Wildcats
- Centre of Scotland
- River Spey
- Trees & Forestry
With so many elements needing to be addressed, this could not be answered with one ‘sculpture’. For that reason the final design is quite complex and made up of a number of elements to meet the very demanding brief. I decided it should be more of a “Landscaping Installation” rather than a single piece. The elements I decided upon include a water-feature stone surrounded by locally-sourced standing stones incorporating Pictish carvings; two 6 meter long benches in the shape of crossed shinty sticks; a new marker stone marking the start/end point of the newly extended Speyside Way and eight, hand-carved wooden panels containing poetry written by the local community.
To learn more about the various elements of the installation CLICK HERE