'Assembly'
by Peter Burke
Public art commission
Woolwich Arsenal, London
2005
CLIENT:London Development Agency, Greenwich Borough Council
PARTNERS:
Woolwich Regeneration Group
Futurecity were appointed by the London Development Agency and the London Borough of Greenwich to develop a public art strategy for the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich. The project brief was complex and included the military history of the site, the needs of the local population plus new minority cultures and the regeneration of the area. Futurecity championed the idea of a sculpture that would put the area on the map.
The decision was made to create a space that could be used in a variety of ways and encompassed a number of themes from festival and play to ceremony and the symbolic. Following a series of meetings, exhibitions and discussions, a series of figures were commissioned from sculptor Peter Burke. In the work, 'Assembly', partial body moulds have been arranged as if coming together with the tightest concentration of figures in the middle of the group. The 16 steel figures relate to the industrial processes of the site, the people who worked there and the future of the community.
The decision was made to create a space that could be used in a variety of ways and encompassed a number of themes from festival and play to ceremony and the symbolic. Following a series of meetings, exhibitions and discussions, a series of figures were commissioned from sculptor Peter Burke. In the work, 'Assembly', partial body moulds have been arranged as if coming together with the tightest concentration of figures in the middle of the group. The 16 steel figures relate to the industrial processes of the site, the people who worked there and the future of the community.