Installations for Fanshawe Road Take Shape
Artworks take shape for Fanshawe Road
The three artworks created by Russell Denman and Eleanor Goulding for the new homes being developed at Fanshawe Road are beginning to take shape.
Drawing on archive photographs, geological research and a series of workshops with local residents, where participants shared their connections to the site, Eleanor and Russell have spent the last few months developing designs for the new public artworks and landscape features.
The artists have been working on a number of elements within the open spaces, including raised planting beds and a pergola. The latter takes inspiration from the communal washing lines that were once a familiar feature of the site. Due to be installed in the coming weeks, the pergola will provide a welcoming space for residents to meet and spend time together beneath climbing plants that will weave across a network of overhead steel cables, echoing the form of the historic washing lines.
Located within the central courtyard will be two garden beds featuring Mediterranean-style dry garden planting. Large Portland stone plinths, referencing the chalk bedrock that lies beneath the site, will be positioned within metal rings. Set upon these plinths will be three hand-carved wooden forms inspired by the microscopic fossils from which chalk is formed, creating a further connection to the chalk strata that run through this part of Cambridge.
The images below show the wooden forms beginning to emerge as Russell starts the carving process.
The artworks are due to be installed shortly and, once in place, further creative workshops and opportunities for residents to help shape and animate the open spaces will be organised as the new community takes root.
