Our Proposal

This page will cover all the steps we have taken as a group, throughout this project and what potential outcomes could be in line for this project.

The timeline below is covering our work from the start in January 2023 all the way to the end in April 2023 and will detail all of the major points of the project.

January 2023

Jan 16th: began the project by establishing what the project is and what potential roles and skills everyone can offer. Due to the project involving an exhibition, it might be important to contact some of the MA exhibition studies students to find out what goes into making and supporting an exhibition.

Jan 17th: started some research into the Tate Aisle Gallery and what they offer. Sending a follow-up email to the gallery manager about our interest in working on an external exhibition for the Spring Exhibition. We also investigated some themes that would fit nicely with the park, such as community, animals, park history, etc.

Jan 23rd: had another module workshop that introduced us to some elements to consider throughout this project. One idea was that ‘ambitious projects are good’ and to consider what we want to achieve for our project.

Jan 31st: had a group meeting today to talk over some points of interest (like the idea of the human condition and the exhibition ‘Being Human’). We also explored the LAByrinth project by Elaine Young and the use of materials and consumer attention within it. We decided to focus on the idea of ‘past & present’ which could be linked to the Birkenhead community and to the history of the park.

Feburary 2023

Feb 2nd: during this group meeting, we went over the four potential ideas we had discussed previously (memories, trees, suitcases, and rainbows). We wanted to clearly highlight what each idea could represent and whether the Birkenhead community would feel a natural link to them e.g., exploring memories of nostalgia. We also set up a physical meeting on February 22nd, with the Tate Aisle Gallery to go and view the park and learn more about the project.

Feb 20th: had a group discussion with our module leader and colleagues to explain the current state of our project and to receive feedback about it. It was a good chance to ask questions and cover any blind spots that we may have not approached yet within the project. Also talked about the idea of getting funding and how to get the most out of applying.

Feb 21st: this meeting focused on discussing the combination of two exhibitions since ours would be working alongside other during the same time. We explored the ideas of hanging work from trees, creating shadows out of designed sculptures, and getting the community involved with painting a variety of stones. One main conclusion we came to was to focus on sculptures that could be placed around the park as they would be easy to move and wouldn’t interfere with the park’s major landmarks and the addition of more collaborators on the fine art side.

Feb 22nd: we had an important site visit to Birkenhead Park to talk to the team about the current state of the project and how they wanted it to progress. They liked the idea of it being ‘The People’s Park’ with the circle connection and it reflects the idea of how history repeats itself, like with the cycle of life. Ultimately, they liked the idea of having a set of small exhibition spaces around the park to encourage the community to find them, but they must be small and made of materials that will not encourage antisocial behaviour (as the park can’t guarantee the safety of the work when it is up).

March 2023

March 5th: had a group call on teams to catch up with any members who weren’t at the site visit and to start allocating small roles to start the ‘making process’ within the group. We wanted to focus on finding some visual material from previous exhibitions that could support our development of ours.

March 6th: during this discussion, we explored the ideas of wildlife and nature and the forms it can take when presented in the wild. The use of flower sculpture is quite popular in parks during the summertime, so it was interesting to see how flowers and other plants had been used to create amazing sculptures. Since the park team liked the idea of us using natural resources, we explore exhibitions that used stones, twigs and even leaves to create striking pieces of artwork. Creating arrangements of these objects would be a fun challenge to work with and give us the opportunity to play around with colour and the placements around the park.

March 13th: we came up with some initial sketches for what the exhibition could look like around the park and explored what materials can be used to display certain elements. As we were looking into materials like cork and wood, how they would be used in the park would be different: the wood could be a placeholder or foundation for the sculptures so the pieces would be all together and not blow away. Whilst the cork would open options to place stuff around trees, whether this be artwork or nature arrangements.

March 29th: we had our second visit to Birkenhead Park where we proposed more ideas to the team and got feedback on what could and couldn’t happen regarding the exhibition. They liked the idea of using cork and wood to display sculptures around the park but weren’t too sure about the nature arrangements as the current season (Spring) has fewer resources at our disposal since most plants were in the process of blooming. So, we have decided to focus on the image sculptures and cork paintings as some of the final outcomes for the exhibition.

April 2023

April 16th: had an important group call to finalise some major points of the project e.g., the list of Birkenhead creatures and plants, the materials for the sculptures and the route of the trail. We wanted to make sure that the sculpture would be environmentally friendly and not attract anti-social behaviour. With the addition of those points, the use of QR codes was added as well as the titles of each sculpture edition.

April 17th: had one last important group presentation with our module leader John. It was important to see how far the project had grown since January. We were happy with the overview and context of the project and portraying the demands and all the technical solutions that have been developing whilst working as a group. It would have been nice to have some more visual material to go alongside the text and presentation.

April 19th: we sent off all the information about our exhibition to the gallery so that they can start advertising the external exhibition alongside the Spring Exhibition.

April 24th: we continued to work on the writing and sculpture elements of the project as we wanted enough time to test and record any interesting experiments that could highlight the sculptures more when placed in the park.

April 28th: Transdisciplinary Module deadline submission and the date for setting up the exhibition. All the sculptures will be finished and ready to be placed around the exhibition trail, and hopefully, there will be a small A5 leaflet that holds some more information about the external exhibition.

April 29th: the day the exhibition will be open to the public to explore.

May 2023

April 29th to May 14th, 2023: the exhibition will be up and available for the public to view when exploring the park. It will be interesting to see if any interactions occur with the sculptures and if any rain appears to showcase the image changes. Since the exhibition will be on for two weeks, we hope all the sculptures will be left in their allotted points and fit well into the scenery.

May 15th: we will go back to the park to see the external exhibition and take all the pieces down and see how sustainable they were in situ.

Further Options

This project is easy to replicate in other city green spaces and can offer benefits to the wider community including:

health
education
teambuilding
environmental benefits
nature preservation/wildlife conservation
opportunity for collaborative working
employment opportunities
can inform future projects by evaluation

This is a pilot project for Birkenhead Park, however, one of the artists is prospecting another space, Calderstones Park in South Liverpool which is currently developing a local nature reserve. This is potentially another transdisciplinary opportunity.

Birkenhead Park: https://birkenhead-park.org.uk/

Calderstones Park: http://www.logscic.org.uk/depot.htm