Page 31 - Studio International - July August 1972

BIRMINGHAM
Robert Carruthers

When I was working on the Colmore Circus
project I was influenced most by the particular
limitations of the site, the way people used it,
and how relevant to them the piece of sculpture
in that space could be.
The space when I looked at it first was a
strongly defined oval area at a conjunction of
roads and pedestrian underpasses, with no
apparent provision for public leisure other than
some park benches. It had a grassed area and
otherwise no other natural element. People
coming through the circus from nearby offices
are usually strongly directed anyway, and are
hardly encouraged to stop in the area except in
summer, and at lunchtime, when they may be
looking for somewhere to sit. Other things which
affect the area are the surrounding roads, fifteen
feet above, a long horizontal wall down one
side, and some tall heavy buildings on the other.
The feeling I had from these factors was
that I wanted to break the horizontal surround,
open up the space above the middle with
something high, and link this with a strongly
associative object on either side that could
involve the public in using the whole area. I
decided that to put a single piece of sculpture
inside this kind of space would be irrelevant,
uninteresting and unlikely to change the space
or the attitude of the people to the way they
used it.
The three parts to the sculpture complex
are each separate, but interrelate in the way
they use repeating geometric forms, which refer
across the group and form an overlay of pattern
to anyone seeing it from either end of the square.
This also makes them critically aware of their
changing position through the whole area and of
developing relationships in the series.
I wanted to use wood because it is relatively
cheap, easy to handle and process, and doesn't
look permanent. Putting the logs in the ground
involved considerable site work, and I found
that there was a lot of concern and interest
about making these kinds of geometric
structures in that they fostered expectations
and criticisms and suggested some sort of
function to a lot of people.
The sculpture uses other materials which are
designed to encourage people to refer to them
in all changes of weather. The present sail on
the gate is in heavy material for rough weather
and the colour seemed best for diminished light
and grey days, but I would like now to put up a
lighter sail for the summer which is more
sensitive to wind and light, and I am also
curious to see how many people will be
persuaded by the warmer weather to sit about
on the sculpture instead of the grass. q

Work for Colmore Circus, Birmingham
Timber, galvanised chain, sail cloth
52 metres height

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