Sywell Echo – the masts are in…

A selection of photos from the install including some conservation students from Moulton College.

Sywell Echo: Floats packed & ready to go!

Floats installed over the weekend, final push this week before launch on Friday 21st Oct when the LED lights will be visible from dusk to dawn until Saturday 29th October.  Look out for Charles and helpers at the reservoir this coming Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

Sywell Echo – Install

Spent a great day today working with Charles Monkhouse on the Sywell Echo install bobbing around on Sywell Reservoir dropping off weights and marking the route of the masts and lights with the backdrop of swans, ducks, canadian geese, herons, gulls and a cormorant.  Lots of people out walking round the reservoir on what was a pretty decent weather day.

Charles and colleagues will be at the Reservoir next weekend 15/16Oct  and the following week 18/20/21 Oct getting all the necessary kit in place.  If you would like to volunteer to help Charles with the install then please do get in touch by leaving a comment below.

Sywell Echo – Charles Monkhouse – Oct 21 – 28

Sywell Country Park, Washbrook Lane Ecton, Northamptonshire, NN6 0QX

Beneath the reservoir the beds of the old streams still define the confluence of three parishes.  Sywell Echoexplores the history of the valley by redrawing its hidden geography with 128 LEDs floating above the reservoir’s surface. Each light, precisely the height above the water that the stream is below, will re create, within its watery reflection, the old waterways and boundaries below.

Sywell Reservoir has two branches, both approximately 1km long and is up to 10m deep. The lights, placed at about 18m intervals, trace the old river systems below the water from the dam the source streams.

Each light is held at the tip of a fibreglass carp pole which is counterbalanced by an aluminium and steel keel under the water.  The units hang on wooden floats which are tethered to the reservoir bottom with bungee cord.  In total Sywell Echo uses 200m of aluminium tube and 45m of steel to keep the masts upright, and 300m of 100mm x 100mm timber to generate approximately 1700L of buoyancy to float the installation.  The materials have been specially selected so they can be easily recycled once the installation is over.

The lighting units comprise strip 9 LEDs spiralling around a short section of dowel. They are linked to 12v batteries on the floats by 1.4k of wire.

With its 128 masts and lights flexing in a breeze it should be quite a spectacular site day or night, whatever the weather conditions.

FLOW: Sywell Echo

Thanks to all of you who have visited the website to date – just a quick heads-up about the next FLOW installation by artist Charles Monkhouse called Sywell Echo.

Sywell Echo will explore the history of the Sywell valley by redrawing its hidden geography with 160 LEDs floating above the reservoir’s surface.

Each light, precisely the height above the water that the stream is below, will re create, within its watery reflection, the old waterways and boundaries below.

The installation will be on show every evening during half-term from Friday 21 to Friday 28 October 2011 at Sywell Country Park between Northampton and Wellingborough.

Hope to see you there!

artdaily.org praise FLOW Northamptonshire

 

artdaily.org, ‘The first art newspaper on the net’, have published a piece on FLOW Northamptonshire, featuring artists Steve Messam, Jo Fairfax, and Charles Monkhouse:

Site Specific Artworks by Leading British Artists Alight on Northamptonshire’s Waterways

Northamptonshire, home to the world famous Silverstone Circuit and Althorp, the final resting place of Diana, Princess of Wales, will this summer welcome new exciting art commissions and large scale artworks onto its waterways and water towers as part of the Cultural Olympiad, the largest cultural celebration in the modern history of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Read the full article  here on the artdaily.org website.