On the day of the installation William Danby had arranged transport of the sculpture at 9.15am from Studio 11 to the Council House building. We only had the van facilities for a limited time, but managed to fit the entire sculpture (in several sections) in one trip.
Lee McDonald traveled with William to the Council House to transport the sculpture. I was the only other person with a car on the day so I dropped Jess Bent and Kath Howard with the wall pieces to the Council House from Studio 11 first. I then, over several trips transported the plinths and smaller view-finding devices with Maddy Crossley and Sarah Hughes, as well as tools/paint etc which we required.
Will, Lee and Maddy set about putting the sculpture together and fortunately all of our preparation and measurements had paid off because the sections fitted together perfectly and created no obstruction to the lighting. This was the first time we had actually seen the sculpture in one piece!
Jess and Kath hung the wall pieces using wire, eyelet hooks and picture hooks that wouldn’t damage the wood panels. Tony Davey expressed particular interest in the wall pieces and said that he may be interested in buying one. Following a brief discussion with our tutor Edith Doove (also present during the install), she felt that we should look into charging for prints and whether we would be able to also produce framed prints if people showed an interest in purchasing them. We later decided to charge £25 for limited edition prints and £35 for framed prints. Kath Howard and Jess Bent took on the responsibility of recording orders.
Myself and Sarah prepared the plinths (filled gaps/sanded) and painted them over dust sheets to prevent any damage to the marble floor. After consulting with Councillor Penberthy it was decided that we would not place rope between each plinth around the sculpture because a) it would prevent people interacting with the sculpture, b) the plinths marked out a square shape around the sculpture – an invisible barrier and c) the sculpture was very visible and it was unlikely that people would walk directly into it.
The whole installation did not take long and we were finished by the early afternoon. As mentioned, we had tried to prepare for all eventualities which had put us in good stead. It was a great sense of satisfaction and relief to have the artworks installed successfully and to see that the hard work had paid off.
