Bristol City Centre
51°27'17.2"N 2°35'47.8"W
Public space must honour its most sacred invitation: to exercise free thought and movement. Instructions to keep apart from one another for our own safety can only be taken in good faith by a public that believes its authorities understand and value it. We applaud the collective energy Bristolians used to remove the raised statue of slave trader Edward Colston from one of its most prominent public spaces, triggering worldwide review of such symbols. Our proposed Garden of Voices monument casts these brave figures in bronze, casting their placards on the ground to be read by generations to come.
About
Lovers is a creative supergroup built to express ideas powerfully. Engaged by a spectrum of organisations from Greenpeace to Tate, they stand for ‘agency in people’ rather than ‘people in agency,’ operating a collective model that choreographs special teams for each of its projects. So far these have included rebranding iconic landmarks, celebrating sex, championing theatre, dance, ocean protection and talking death.
Team included Charles Agnew, Oliver Long, Robert Hunter, Alex OstrowskI, Lisa Armstrong, Sam Wilkinson, Hattie Newman, Jack Webster Dunstan, Harriet Lyall, Florence Markworth and Jimmy Ginn.
Interview
How did you approach the brief, and why did you select this site?
Our conversations led to Bristol City Centre, where members of the public recently removed a prominent statue of slave trader Edward Colston. [*The 17th- and18th-century slave trader’s statue was torn down during a Black Lives Matter protest in June.]
We started by thinking about ‘public space’ – what is it for? The brief is about how you ask people to keep their distance, but how do you do that when public space is largely about allowing people to come together? Does this have to be a dogmatic instruction, or can a space gently encourage safe distancing whilst also celebrating the way people can come together in public space? We wanted to find a way to talk about the positive potential of public space, rather than focusing squarely on this negative idea of ‘don’t’, ‘you can’t’ and ‘keep apart’.
If you’re helping a public space tell people to disperse, you’re seemingly saying ‘Don’t congregate,’ ‘Don’t get together.’ What we’ve been seeing lately, instead, is an urgency to do those things. In Bristol, as elsewhere, we’ve seen people come out into public spaces and express agency and express a collective point of view.
So, what have you designed, then – and where does your design stop, so to speak?
We wanted to erect a statue in tribute to the collective willpower and action it took to remove a symbol of oppression from public space. Instead of celebrating one single figure who represents slavery, our design proposes commemorating the many people and voices that led to a change in public space that would better reflect public thought and feeling. This was a hugely important moment in UK and world history, given the discussion it has prompted in cities around the UK and beyond.
Creating a statue of a statue coming down is sort of a delicious idea, and in fact, Banksy — king of reshaping public space — had this same idea, publishing a sketch of it online whilst we were developing our designs. Normally we might have moved our thinking elsewhere once we’d seen the same thought in someone else’s head, but since the whole moment was really about embracing shared thinking and good ideas in multiple people’s heads at the same time, it felt better to push on and take the idea further. We started thinking about the wider space around the statue, using 3D software to explore how it could work in practice, and also giving consideration to how the public would be able to safely move and flow through the space.
We’ve called it Garden of Voices because we’ve placed bronze plaques in the floor commemorating the placards used to communicate on that day. The idea is that members of the public could wander around the space (they’re laid out in a non-hierarchical radial pattern around the plinth) reading, listening and reflecting on the many things that people wanted to say. We’d love the space to simultaneously capture the action moment, but also offer a more contemplative space to move freely in.
The problem with a single plaque, which is common with public statues, is that it means people have to get very close to it – and each other – to read it. We wanted to disperse the information more freely throughout the space so that people can wander and read whilst keeping a distance, rather than focusing all information to a single spot. Our design preserves the original handmade typography of the placards so that people can see the effort that went into making public voices heard.
In its wake, instead, you have a garden of voices, so that if you and I were there we could wander through and not bump into each other. If I’m standing and looking down and reading what’s at my feet, you’re going to see that from my body language and you’re not going to encroach on my space – so we have a gentle way for you not to come near me. Yet, we have a way for me to be out in public space, and experience that public space as a forum for collective understanding, by spreading out where the power is in that space.
Yes, of course – a plaque allows for just one voice, and this allows for a plurality of them. Have you thought where you would draw the text from?
We would start with scanning the placards from the day and plotting those down. But we thought it would also be interesting to take longer-form expressions of thought and points of view – perhaps curated from the wider public – and get those in there too. You can add historical context, you can add individual stories, you can add multiple dimensions to the story.
You can either absorb just a little or stay for longer and be there for even a couple of hours reading. And, in theory, some of those floor plaques could be replaced over time so that you have a modular quality to the conversation – it can be refreshed. Conversations can shift over time of course, and stay alive.
Would people be able to sit, as well?
We wondered whether perhaps some of the plaques could be raised to offer an opportunity for seating. This could make the space feel more like a sort of amphitheatre of plinths and platforms, where you could even host public theatre or debate.
This is a very site-specific, and moment-at-site-specific – do you see this as able to translate to other spaces?
Our design was inspired by what happened in Bristol, but there are many sites all over the world where similar removals are happening and the question becomes “what next?” If there’s a message we want to get across it’s that public space doesn’t just ‘happen’ — it doesn’t get designed by fairies. People can design it. What might work in Bristol may be different somewhere else, but people should feel they can dream and impact how a public space looks and works.
Does this connect with how Lovers approaches creative challenges more generally?
We’re a collective, so the idea of commemorating collective action is exciting to us. We approach projects by combining our variety of skills, and through collective teamwork. And teamwork is what it took to remove the statue of Edward Colston.
Bristol City Centre
51°27'17.2"N 2°35'47.8"W
Public space must honour its most sacred invitation: to exercise free thought and movement. Instructions to keep apart from one another for our own safety can only be taken in good faith by a public that believes its authorities understand and value it. We applaud the collective energy Bristolians used to remove the raised statue of slave trader Edward Colston from one of its most prominent public spaces, triggering worldwide review of such symbols. Our proposed Garden of Voices monument casts these brave figures in bronze, casting their placards on the ground to be read by generations to come.
About
Lovers is a creative supergroup built to express ideas powerfully. Engaged by a spectrum of organisations from Greenpeace to Tate, they stand for ‘agency in people’ rather than ‘people in agency,’ operating a collective model that choreographs special teams for each of its projects. So far these have included rebranding iconic landmarks, celebrating sex, championing theatre, dance, ocean protection and talking death.
Team included Charles Agnew, Oliver Long, Robert Hunter, Alex OstrowskI, Lisa Armstrong, Sam Wilkinson, Hattie Newman, Jack Webster Dunstan, Harriet Lyall, Florence Markworth and Jimmy Ginn.
Interview
How did you approach the brief, and why did you select this site?
Our conversations led to Bristol City Centre, where members of the public recently removed a prominent statue of slave trader Edward Colston. [*The 17th- and18th-century slave trader’s statue was torn down during a Black Lives Matter protest in June.]
We started by thinking about ‘public space’ – what is it for? The brief is about how you ask people to keep their distance, but how do you do that when public space is largely about allowing people to come together? Does this have to be a dogmatic instruction, or can a space gently encourage safe distancing whilst also celebrating the way people can come together in public space? We wanted to find a way to talk about the positive potential of public space, rather than focusing squarely on this negative idea of ‘don’t’, ‘you can’t’ and ‘keep apart’.
If you’re helping a public space tell people to disperse, you’re seemingly saying ‘Don’t congregate,’ ‘Don’t get together.’ What we’ve been seeing lately, instead, is an urgency to do those things. In Bristol, as elsewhere, we’ve seen people come out into public spaces and express agency and express a collective point of view.
So, what have you designed, then – and where does your design stop, so to speak?
We wanted to erect a statue in tribute to the collective willpower and action it took to remove a symbol of oppression from public space. Instead of celebrating one single figure who represents slavery, our design proposes commemorating the many people and voices that led to a change in public space that would better reflect public thought and feeling. This was a hugely important moment in UK and world history, given the discussion it has prompted in cities around the UK and beyond.
Creating a statue of a statue coming down is sort of a delicious idea, and in fact, Banksy — king of reshaping public space — had this same idea, publishing a sketch of it online whilst we were developing our designs. Normally we might have moved our thinking elsewhere once we’d seen the same thought in someone else’s head, but since the whole moment was really about embracing shared thinking and good ideas in multiple people’s heads at the same time, it felt better to push on and take the idea further. We started thinking about the wider space around the statue, using 3D software to explore how it could work in practice, and also giving consideration to how the public would be able to safely move and flow through the space.
We’ve called it Garden of Voices because we’ve placed bronze plaques in the floor commemorating the placards used to communicate on that day. The idea is that members of the public could wander around the space (they’re laid out in a non-hierarchical radial pattern around the plinth) reading, listening and reflecting on the many things that people wanted to say. We’d love the space to simultaneously capture the action moment, but also offer a more contemplative space to move freely in.
The problem with a single plaque, which is common with public statues, is that it means people have to get very close to it – and each other – to read it. We wanted to disperse the information more freely throughout the space so that people can wander and read whilst keeping a distance, rather than focusing all information to a single spot. Our design preserves the original handmade typography of the placards so that people can see the effort that went into making public voices heard.
In its wake, instead, you have a garden of voices, so that if you and I were there we could wander through and not bump into each other. If I’m standing and looking down and reading what’s at my feet, you’re going to see that from my body language and you’re not going to encroach on my space – so we have a gentle way for you not to come near me. Yet, we have a way for me to be out in public space, and experience that public space as a forum for collective understanding, by spreading out where the power is in that space.
Yes, of course – a plaque allows for just one voice, and this allows for a plurality of them. Have you thought where you would draw the text from?
We would start with scanning the placards from the day and plotting those down. But we thought it would also be interesting to take longer-form expressions of thought and points of view – perhaps curated from the wider public – and get those in there too. You can add historical context, you can add individual stories, you can add multiple dimensions to the story.
You can either absorb just a little or stay for longer and be there for even a couple of hours reading. And, in theory, some of those floor plaques could be replaced over time so that you have a modular quality to the conversation – it can be refreshed. Conversations can shift over time of course, and stay alive.
Would people be able to sit, as well?
We wondered whether perhaps some of the plaques could be raised to offer an opportunity for seating. This could make the space feel more like a sort of amphitheatre of plinths and platforms, where you could even host public theatre or debate.
This is a very site-specific, and moment-at-site-specific – do you see this as able to translate to other spaces?
Our design was inspired by what happened in Bristol, but there are many sites all over the world where similar removals are happening and the question becomes “what next?” If there’s a message we want to get across it’s that public space doesn’t just ‘happen’ — it doesn’t get designed by fairies. People can design it. What might work in Bristol may be different somewhere else, but people should feel they can dream and impact how a public space looks and works.
Does this connect with how Lovers approaches creative challenges more generally?
We’re a collective, so the idea of commemorating collective action is exciting to us. We approach projects by combining our variety of skills, and through collective teamwork. And teamwork is what it took to remove the statue of Edward Colston.