Black Rock Public Art Strategy & Commissions
Black Rock and the Sea Kale: Friends with Benefits, Public Art Strategy
Year
2020-ongoing
Client
Brighton & Hove City Council
Services
Public Art Strategy and Commission Management
Locations
Black Rock
Brighton & Hove
A Public Art Strategy for Black Rock
We were commissioned by Brighton & Hove City Council to work with the design team, led by LUC, and devise a public art strategy for the enabling works project for this key site on Brighton & Hove seafront.
A phased approach is being adopted for this strategy, driven in part by the construction programme, with the potential to collaboratively develop the artworks on the site over a longer term through partnership opportunities, co-production and external funders.
The strategy sets out to build on the existing collection of permanent artworks along the seafront and to use this interim site for temporary interventions, and provide a space for others to create the unexpected.
Brighton & Hove City Council is undertaking the work at Black Rock with funding from the Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership. The project is for enabling works to prepare the site’s infrastructure for long-term future use and provide public realm and ecological improvements for the more immediate benefit of residents and visitors. The long-term future use of part of the site has yet to be confirmed, but this provides a great opportunity for creative interim use and establishing a framework for future public art commissioning.
“The city cosmopolitan; it is socially, culturally and creatively diverse with a unique social history and a long artistic tradition.”
The art programme outlines temporary interventions during the construction process, permanent artworks, and creative engagement initiatives for later delivery. Working in partnership with arts and community organisations in the city to develop and deliver projects with local residents is central to the approach for the later phases.
The reinvigorated public realm will become a canvas for artists to respond creatively, celebrating and reimagining what Black Rock might be and contributing to the city’s cultural richness.
“This site provides an opportunity to creatively test and experiment Brighton and Hove’s ‘character’ in a dynamic, joyous and playful way, but rooted within the natural physical environment that has helped to shape the city.”
Visually, Black Rock is marked by a geologic mash-up and splicing together of natural and man-made stone. The concrete lines and angles of the promenade, underpasses, ramps, and the Kemp Town Slopes move over, between, and against Brighton’s sedimentary cliff face and bedrock, containing 85 million years of geologic history. Within this landscape are numerous layers of cultural and social history. The Grade-II listed Temple and Old Reading Room, and the facade of Dukes Mound, are embedded in the cliff face and become the backdrop for distinct zones, territories and spaces that have become important for the communities that have co-opted them as spaces of exploration and connection.
Like the floating sea kale seed, Black Rock has seemingly remained in a state of dormancy in stark contrast to the energy and vitality a mile to the west. As the regeneration of the area makes sense of this unresolved area of Brighton, how too can the art programme provide a platform for the narrative of its cultural ecologies to be told and acknowledged? How can interventions within the site create new features and points of discussion? Black Rock and the Sea Kale: Friends with Benefits will invite artists and creative practitioners to interrogate this unique site and make proposals for innovative ways to celebrate and reimagine what Black Rock is and might be.
The strategy has been completed and artists have been selected for two permanent commissions:
Anna Dumitriu and Alex May have developed a series of three sculptural markers based on the ecology, history and context of Black Rock. Anna and Alex work with sculpture, science and digital technologies to create artworks that reveal hidden stories. Due for installation in late 2023.
Katie Schwab is developing her proposal for sculptural interventions on the site. Katie works with installation, textiles, furniture and moving image to explore personal and social histories of craft, design and education. Her research focuses on domestic textiles and civic architecture from the inter- and postwar period and, in particular, the underrepresented work of women artists and émigré designers. Due for installation in spring 2024.
More information on these in due course.
A temporary commission, Alphabet for Black Rock, was previously installed on the site, see here for more information. 13 artists were selected following nominations from local artists and arts organisations.
See here for more information on the project.