Visual Arts

Stoke has some excellent statues - such as the Stanley Mathews in Hanley and Gordon Banks at the Britannia Football Stadium - but statues such as ‘A Man Can’t Fly’ near Staffordshire University, or the one almost hidden away on platform two at the railway station make me wonder: why do we have them in the first place?

They cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to produce and maintain, but some are in such obscure places that you can’t even see them.

Why, why, why?

Why do we have public art in the first place?

Well according to Peta Murphy-Buerke, the city council’s arts development officer, it’s in us as human beings to want to make large representational objects.
As she told me, “We’ve always made statues, things that are bigger than ourselves. If you look back in history at the Egyptians, you can see there is a strong line. The Romans were very good at making sculptures too.”

It was as interesting interview. You can hear the rest of it by clicking on the link below.

In the right place?

I am still not convinced though.
It’s as if though some of these statues in the city are too randomly placed. Do the authority really take in to consideration where they place the statues?
It might be a phenomenal piece of art, but the truth be said, the location is equally important.

But Peta defended the choices of site. “Areas develop round the sculpture; then the sculpture becomes less important and the site more important”, she said.
Peta gave me some of her pictures of public sculpture in the city centre; and I also took my own camera on a walk to see which ones I could find.
Here is a photo-gallery of the statues I found…

An older statue, but still respected

Statues of young people

One question that still remains a mystery: why aren’t there any statues of young people, statues that are celebratory of young people’s achievements?
After all it is the youth that are going to be the leaders of tomorrow. I could not find any statues of young people in Stoke-on-Trent - have you seen any?

I think that it is about time that we have a statue of a young person.
Statues of people are put up for reasons such as;  if they left a legacy or made a extraordinary contribution to their community.  But if statue of a bunch of metal feathers can be put up (‘Afloat’ by sculptor Martin Heron by Westport Lake in Tunstall) then why can’t we have a statue of a young person? It could be something that can be a source of encouragement to the youth of Stoke-on-Trent.

Well, according to Peta, that opportunity has now arrived!
As of September 2008, Stoke Council’s art department are open to any ideas involving public art. You don’t have to be an artist; all you need is an idea.
“We would like young people to be involved in the next round of public art” says Peta.

What do you think? Do you have ideas that you feel would make good public art?  If you have, please use the comments space below. It would be great to hear some ideas…

Melvin Rao   (Melvin is the BBC Staffordshire 'Blast' Young Reporter 2008)