A Plethora of Public Art
I’ve no idea how much public art other towns have but it seems to me that Swindon has an astonishing amount.
‘When I began blogging about Swindon, the public art was one of the first things I turned my keyboard to. Not that I even knew the term then. Back in the corner of Derbyshire I left behind, the closest I got to it was an ancient village pump, a cenotaph and a redundant and rusting pit-winding wheel. Hence, discovering all the public art in Swindon was quite the revelation. It’s not possible to write about all of it here but, if you’re so inclined, Born Again Swindonian contains oodles of posts about Swindon’s public art – in particular the West Swindon sculpture trail.‘
Taken from Secret Swindon.
See also this wonderful page celebrating Swindon’s public art on the fantastic We Are Swindon site:
The Per Cent for Art Scheme
Thamesdown Borough Council commissioned the pieces that comprise the West Swindon sculpture trail in the period from the early 1980s to the early 1990s. Funding came, in part, from the housing developer’s contributions to the Percent-for-Art public realm scheme.
My Sculpture Favourites
Within this blog I’ve written about much if Swindon’s sculpture and outdoor art installations. Thus there’s no point in my going over it all in this overview post. You should find it all in this section of the blog. But I will give special mention to a couple of my faves.
And one of my very favourite pieces is The Blondinis. Such a shame that they’re now languishing in a park in Gorse Hill. I still miss them.
Another firm favourite of mine is How the Might Fall – up on Shaw Ridge.
Part of the West Swindon Sculpture Walk this one is located on one of the many superb big green spaces that West Swindon features, it’s quite easy to forget that one is in the middle of a big conurbation. It needs little imagination to see the artist’s intention for the sculpture as a relic of a long gone civilization.
For more posts about public art on this blog click here.
