(film 1 min. 24 secs.) Experimenting with the poetry of Phillip Larkin ('Going Going ) and the fastest car in the world.
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 The museums vending machine
Coventry itself has an interesting relationship to public art. Destroyed during world war two, public art played an important role in the reconstruction process. Notably the Jacob Epstein's sculpture on the rebuilt Coventry cathedral" St Michael's victory over the devil"- was a high profile modernist work signifying a new age and a new approach.
I think there was a sense that people had high hopes for what public could achieve then. Its difficult to gauge the effect on quality of life public art has so whether any of these lofty ideals were achieved is open to opinion. Predominately a manufacturing centre, the city lost out in the eighties with the introduction of Margaret Thatchers free market economy policy. It certainly isn't as prosperous as it used to be and although this isn't really anything to do with public art, poverty always gives the impression that at least 'something' in this society has failed. Consequently I feel that Coventry is a place where the 'function' of public art has a particular resonance. |
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There is always an aspect to making art in a public space outside of the art gallery context that feels a bit paradoxical. If the work is too esoteric it runs the risk of not engaging with its audience but conversely if the work plays to the crowd it can sometimes be accused of being simplistic and even a bit patronising. A 'good' piece of contemporary art often stretch's and challenges its audience making them think and question the world they live in. I think this is key to making something timeless and more than mere novelty.
Like a lot of people, the first time I was exposed to the type of culture commonly referred to as 'high brow' was at school. We were taught that although it might not be entertaining it was 'good for us'. In English literature lessons at my comprehensive school we were made to read poetry with the objective of passing an exam at the end. However, in my subsequent profession as an artist I have often found myself reflecting on the philosophical questions posed by much of this literature. It has obviously stayed with me although I read it reluctantly at the time and even failed the exam. My aim with this proposal is to bring the high brow culture of poetry into the accessible context of the public space of the transport museum. To do this I would make a parody of a vending machine to deliver the poems. The irreverent and contemporary method would transcend the formal context of literature whilst questioning our notions of value and worth. |
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One poet that sticks in mind from my school experience was Phillip Larkin. Weirdly, a bit later in life, when I was an art student in Hull, I found out we had lived on the same block, his former residence being just round the corner. Many of his famous poems were written in my neighbourhood and I found myself identifying with the depressing tones of his work that reflected on the world around him. It may have even been this that influenced my early work. As a student I built a boat from driftwood found in the river Humber so that I could try and escape from Hull. This in turn led to an on going theme of transport based artwork and my current situation of writing a proposal for the Coventry transport museum. It felt personally significant for me therefore when I discovered the former poet laureate was originally born in Coventry.
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'Road transport' and 'Larkin's poetry' don't ordinarily equate to one another but I find that sometimes bringing together two disparate elements often create the most interesting and sometimes original artistic coupling. On Phillip Larkin's Wikipedia page I was surprised to find that someone had even seen fit to make a note of the first car he owned- a Coventry classic, the Rootes Group, 'Singer Gazelle' . This led me to find other automotive connections within his poetry that I could link to specific vehicles in the Coventry Transport Museum collection.
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Photo: GnuDav
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Some of the connections are quite literal such as the poem 'Ambulances' that equates quite obviously with the Commer St' Johns ambulance. Also the poem 'Aubade' , that contemplates death, has a clear connection with the Daimler funeral hearse. In the poem 'Going Going' however, Larkin dwells on the changing urban landscape of a provincial city in post war Britain and the influence of the motor car. The link with the transport museum I found is a bit more subtle but I thought that this was best represented by the Standard Vanguard; a car intended to kick start the post war economy of Coventry. I have found others but I'm sure there are many more vehicle and Larkin poem pairings I have yet to find.
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