Lesser Known Architecture touring exhibition offered

"Britain is rich with forgotten architecture: extraordinary buildings, structures and ideas that helped define the landscape of their time and the technology of the future, but which are often unknown to the general public."

Lesser Known Architecture is an ongoing photographic research project by Theo Simpson that seeks to document these structures, bringing their existence (and sometimes their plight) to a wider audience and acknowledges the architects and engineers who created such inspiring work.

 The original Design Museum exhibition, curated by Elias Redstone, featured ten lesser known architectural sites across London nominated by leading architecture critics. These were presented in a series of offset prints and Tank installation designed by Ben McLaughlin, and displayed as part of London Festival of Architecture in 2013. The touring exhibition features 30 framed prints, taking in sites not only in the capital, but across the United Kingdom as a whole.

"Lesser Known Architecture presents an architectural epitaph for a forgotten era."

We doubt BWTAS members are surprised that a water tower is the poster child for lesser known architecture. Should any venues host this touring exhibition being offered by the Design Museum, we would be happy to mention them here.

Download the exhibition proposal here

Photography: Theo Simpson
Guest Curator: Elias Redstone
Graphic Design: Ben McLaughlin
Tour Venues: National Centre for Craft and Design, Lincolnshire 22 November 2014 – 20 March 2015 Available: April 2015 onwards
Space: 50 linear metres approx.
Hire Fee: On request

Norwich: exhibition

Photographs Now on Display

A collection of photographs, including many of water towers, have gone on display in Norwich. But its only open Friday 18^th to Sunday 20^th October 2013 (Friday: 4-8 pm, Saturday 12-6 pm & Sunday 12-4 pm). It's at Yallops, 59 St. Augustine's Street, Norwich, NR3 3BG and also a little further down the street at Nunn's Yard. For further information, please see the earlier posting here.

Ferrers

Stunning Water Tower Photographs - to go on display in Norwich

© Copyright Carys O'Brien

As part of the Festival of Architecture in Norwich & Norfolk (FANN13), three photographers will be exhibiting new work, exploring architecture in the Norfolk landscape. Carys O'Brien's contribution will be on Water Towers - judging by the photograph above, of the 500,000 gallon tower at Horstead, it should be well worth a look. The exhibition runs from Thursday 17^th to Sunday 20^th October 2013 at Nunn's Yard, 31 St. Augustines Street, Norwich, NR3 3BY and Yallops, 59 St. Augustine's Street, Norwich, NR3 3BG. More information on this display and the background of the three photographers may be found here.

Ferrers

The Water Tank Project

Word Above the Street is staging a large scale public art initiative to draw attention to water as a precious resource by transforming 300 of New York's celebrated rooftop water tanks into works of art.

Artists, musicians and scientists and New York City residents will redefine the skyline across all five New York City boroughs during Summer 2013.

The event aims to reach millions around the world through social networking, and online multimedia tools with a mission to harness the power of art and technology to build a better world, make art that makes a difference and broadcast art to an ever expanding audience.

You can download a snazzy PDF brochure about it.

Túir uisce na hÉireann*

Water Towers of Ireland has been around since June 2010. Its curator/artist Jamie Young has regularly corresponded with BWTAS and says his purpose is to "draw people closer to these objects which seem to permanently sit on the horizon". His project is "part inventory, part photographic essay and part history..."

Jamie found water towers "could indicate a timeline in the history of the country - from the oldest water towers of railway stations, through the progression of concrete construction, and on to the need for larger reservoirs in recent times, when communities have simply outgrown their elevated supply..." 

He finds that "once these images are placed in front of an audience they themselves start to notice and value the water towers they encounter..."

BWTAS totally and utterly concurs. Like us, Jamie is looking for funds to publish his research. If there's a publisher - such as Taschen - who wished to combine the water towers of the UK and Ireland into one book, I am sure BWTAS contributors would be more than willing to oblige.

Please visit watertowersofireland.com

*apologies if the Gaelic is wrong, can you supply better?

Rosalind Stoddart: Open Gallery and Sale

Rosalind Stoddart, Independent Cultural Engineer and Artist, has announced an open gallery and sale at her Northamptonshire water tower  on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 September 2011 showing her work ranging back many years with everything for sale.

Cakes and tea will be sold too.

Profits go towards the art projects she will be running next year:  BB and his world.

Opening times 11am to 4pm both days.



The Water Tower
Benefield Road
Brigstock
Kettering
NN14 3JA
United Kingdom


Tel: +44(0)1536 370108
Email: ros@rosalindstoddart.co.uk



Those with an interest in the cultural value of water towers, please note the text bolded (by me) below from the website of Fermynwoods Contemporary Art

FCA was founded by artist Rosalind Stoddart and architect Patrick Duerden towards the end of 1998 as an art gallery exhibiting paintings, sculpture and artists prints for sale. Their motivation was their own abiding passion for contemporary visual art, primarily non figurative work in the tradition of British modernism. Alongside this abiding interest, Rosalind perceived that there was no exhibition space for the most exciting and forward looking of artists in Northamptonshire, nor anywhere in the County to see the work of nationally and internationally important contemporary artists. Rosalind’s vision was to promote the work of the best up and coming artists by showing their work alongside that of established practitioners. She received early encouragement and support from David Holmes, who for many years had run a gallery in his own house in Peterborough before relocating to Cornwall in the mid 90s.

When Rosalind bought the Water Tower from the Fermyn Woods estate in 1994, it was as much for the opportunity to create a large artists studio as it was to realise its potential for domestic use. With FCA’s first exhibition, it was apparent that the building was also eminently suited to use as a gallery, and that alongside the art, the building itself helped to draw visitors to the venue. The garden that was created around Rosalind’s site specific sculpture Enclose completed the profile of the Water Tower as a visitor attraction.



Rosalind once described her practise to the BBC:



"My work encompasses painting sculpture and printmaking. It is often colourful and bold and on all scales from very small to very large.


I seek to emphasise the relationships of abstract form, colour, line and the balance and rhythm of these elements in composition.


My work often is autobiographical because the shapes are arrived at intuitively. Looking inwardly in this way is central to my artistic practice. My work is often site specific.


I trained as a painter at The Byam Shaw School of Painting and Drawing and at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts.


In 2000, I had a solo exhibition of large sculptures at Lyveden New Bield - the National Trust property near Oundle, Northamptonshire. This was part of a Year of the Artist residency.


I live and work in East Northamptonshire from where I also run a gallery, Fermyn Woods Contemporary Art."

Towers of East Anglia Art Exhibition

The Landguard Fort and warm evening sunshine welcomed over sixty people to a private view of the BWTAS sponsored exhibition; Towers of East Anglia.

BWTAS Chairman Wil Harvey (far left) gave our thanks to David Morgan (second from left) and the Landguard Fort Trust for their assistance with the show.

Wil welcomed our distinguished guests; Felixstowe's Mayor Councillor Angela Goodwin and her husband Councillor John Goodwin.

















Left: Pastels and photographs of New York City water towers by guest artist Dorothy Koppellman, who has studied water towers in her native USA for nearly 30 years.

Towers, with their visual impact, always inspire feelings of awe and curiosity.





The exhibition shows over 90 works by twenty artists with a common interest in depicting architecture.

Artists exhibiting include Clare Johnson, Mark Beesley, Joan Sandford-Cook, Sandra Rowney, John Barham, Charles Nightingale, Alan Wright, Dorin Elvin, Elle Thompson, Kate Coleman, Michael Norman, Liz Klotz and others.

Most of the works are available for purchase.

Right: An installation by Alfie Sheppard, a recent graduate of Norwich University College of the Arts.

Alfie has lately secured a six month internship with an American sculpture studio.








A wide range of BWTAS merchandise is for sale.











A full catalogue will appear online in due course. Meantime, the exhibition runs until Sunday July 19, 2009.

More Info