Competition Finalist
Client: Boston City Council
Consultants: Transported / Creative People and Places

2020 marks the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Pilgrims from the UK to Plymouth Massachusetts. 

Boston Council

‘We would like to see an artwork that reflects associations, themes and the surrounding environment, responding more widely than just to the specific Pilgrim story and the 2020 anniversary, to encourage exploration and discovery beyond this initial focus giving legacy and increased relevance to the site.’ 

‘The Boston Camera’

I proposed an artwork that is an experience, to be interacted with at distance up close and from within. A main feature is the two way Camera Obscura, the function of which is woven through a variety of ideas.

(Main structure fabricated in Corten steel, with a stone and metal inlay floor, the bell and wedge vane, brass, the white wrap around internal projection screen, photo etched concrete.)

The artwork is a celebration of, the founding fathers endeavour, the urge to seek change, their willingness to challenge received wisdom, the pioneering spirit and courage in the face of the unknown. 

The work is a dialogue with the environment, spatially and experientially, working with natural light, wind and sound. I have aimed to create a sculptural experience that works with, the physicality of the specific site, as well as individual imaginative space. Whilst the work is referencing the founding fathers narrative, and plays with navigational instrumentation and tropes of monument and religiosity, it is firmly located also within a modern formal and secular framework.

It is interactive up close and from distance, and it functions with or without human interaction. (The bell will ring, the camera will be on). The rising and setting sun orientates and projects the distant historical and geographical narratives as well as local and current ones, in real time.

Flooring inlays align us to the key destinations of the Netherlands and America.

A faceted and polished wedged beacon form will catch the rising and setting sun reflecting light metaphorically and literally directly back to Amsterdam and Boston, the reflected light visible from distance across the flat plains.

The whole structure is raised slightly to allow flooding when the water levels rise, this articulation of the structure also enables visitors to see if the internal space is occupied on approach whilst maintaining a suitably dark environment for the Camera Obscura projections.