Flora Loughridge
Durham
University
Challenges
were inevitable when Durham University students took on the huge task of
building two large-scale installations, inspired by the dazzling displays
created for the Lumiere Festival. The
student volunteers did not only have to contend with the technical difficulties
of assembling ghost and gnome figures out of metal and fabric in the Castle
grounds, sourcing and installing battery-powered lights, but also with the
stubborn and changeable northern climate.
The
project, named Echo of the Lumiere, was
funded by the Master of University College, Professor David Held and was led by
SCR member Goshka Bialek, an artist well known internationally for her
large-scale sculptures and glasswork. Goshka made
her artistic presence felt locally in 2002, when she was the first artist since
the sixteenth century to exhibit her impressive work at the centre of Neville’s
Screen, next to the main altar in Durham Cathedral. The Echo of the Lumiere installations
were created and assembled in Goshka’s studio in Durham City, where volunteers
from all over the university were given the opportunity to add their own design
ideas to the project, whilst learning the welding methods used in Goshka’s own
unique artwork. Luckily, the project had technician Ian Garrett and several
budding undergraduate engineers on-board, who added their valuable touch to the
dazzling display by taking on the responsibility for the ‘electrics’.
It came
as a bit of a shock, when, shortly after being installed, the gnome went
missing from its new home in the Master’s Garden. The ‘hideous’ sculpture was
created to challenge perceptions and provoke debate about what constitutes
‘ugliness’, as well as to push the viewer’s taste and tolerance for visual art
to its absolute limits. Goshka had expected the eight-foot figure to provoke a
reaction from the public, who were able to view the installation from outside
the castle walls, but she had not expected it to disappear overnight, only to
reappear days later in the Castle grounds. The Echo of the Lumiere project gave students the opportunity and power
to create a unique mark in their environment. But it would seem that even the
permission given by the university for them to do this was not enough to secure
tolerance and respect for the project and the issues it raises. If anybody
would like to challenge the public to further affront, Goshka and her team of
student volunteers are still looking for a good home for the gnome!
About autor
Flora Loughridge is at Durham University,
studying German and English Literature. She has written several exhibition
reviews for the Palatinate newspaper
and followed the Echo of the Lumiere
project from its initial stages, with reviews in The Bubble. She has been closely involved throughout the project,
adding her own creative input to the two installations.
