Cecil Balmond chosen for Gretna Landmark
by Pete Hayman | 05 Jul 2011
The Star of Caledonia is the working title for the new landmark
London-based artist Cecil Balmond has been selected to work with designer Charles Jencks on the creation of a new contemporary landmark to be located at Gretna, Scotland.
The Star of Caledonia is the working title of Balmond's response to a design contest for "The Great Unknown" as part of The Gretna Landmark Project. Wide Open (South Scotland) will develop and produce the project for the Gretna Landmark Trust, which evolved from seminars and workshops led by Jencks over the last six years.
Balmond's design for the landmark aims to capture the "magnetic pull" of Scotland, while celebrating the work of physicist and mathematician James Clerk Maxwell. Jencks said: "Crossing the border to Scotland, across the River Sark, is now a passage obscured under a bridge by cars travelling at speed.
"Instead of marking this with motorway signs we are using a landform and sculpture that pulls together the adjacent site, the distant hills and the Solway." Balmond added: "The Star of Caledonia is a Welcome; its kinetic form and light paths a constant trace of Scotland's power of invention."
London-based artist Cecil Balmond has been selected to work with designer Charles Jencks on the creation of a new contemporary landmark to be located at Gretna, Scotland. The Star of Caledonia is the working title of Balmond's response to a design contest for "The Great Unknown" as part of The Gretna Landmark Project. Wide Open (South Scotland) will develop and produce the project for the Gretna Landmark Trust, which evolved
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