Flash@Hebburn by Charles Quick Urban Art in the New Century Edited by Jonathan Vickery a flash — is the perfect way to symbolise the industrial connection to the riverside, with the spark from a welder’s torch being a regular sight from yesteryear. Contents 07 Foreword – Matthew Jarrett 08 Introduction – Tony Duggan 12 Hebburn – Charles Quick 26 The Sculptural Imagination of Charles Quick – Jon Wood 34 Working it out 44 Infrastructures: Creating FLASH@Hebburn – Jonathan Vickery 62 Testing, Making, Installing 76 FLASH@Hebburn 94 The Launch 96 Celebrating FLASH@Hebburn – Rebbeca Chesney 106 Press Coverage 108 Biography 112 Acknowledgements 113 Image Credits 05 Foreword In the early 1990s, it would have been surprising to think that the North East of England would soon become a leading region in Europe for culture, and particularly for public art. The phenomenon of Antony Gormley’s Angel of the North in Gateshead (completed in 1998) created a wave of aspiration for the North East. In South Tyneside, outstanding figurative sculptures by Juan Munoz and Irene Brown were realised as part of a longer term Arts Council lottery funded project called Art on the Riverside. Our ambition for Art on the Riverside was that in facilitating a series of both artists’ commissions and artists’ residencies, the people of the region would be reconnected to the rivers Tyne and Wear. When we first conceived the artist’s brief and then shortlisted artists for a site in Hebburn, our goal was to find a way of celebrating the local electrical engineering company Reyrolles, who have been a significant national innovator and a local employer for over 100 years. When artist Charles Quick won the commission and made his way through the initial design process, it was interesting to see the change in mindset of the local councillors and business people involved in the process, who had initially expected an artwork in the form of a statue. They selected a proposal for an interactive artwork using light – quite a remarkable decision, but one that recognised the need to celebrate the electrical wonders at Reyrolle. This entailed making something different, which the community could engage with, and to create a special place of the Riverside Park between the shipyards and engineering works – quite a challenge for one artwork! The actual selection of the design proposal for FLASH took all of 45 minutes. The design development, community consultation, planning, airtraffic control, wildlife, and other permissions, made the whole process a long journey. Yet instead of eroding the vision and wearing the artist down, the difficult work of design and negotiation over the seven and half years became a vital process. More people became involved, more people began to understand and be inspired, and eventually FLASH became a project that simply had to happen. It is fascinating that an artist can engage multiple community groups in helping to create a rather minimal and challenging conceptual artwork. It is an even harder job to make something that teenagers have fun with, and something which the older members of the Hebburn community recognise as a technological celebration of their work and a rich industrial past. Matthew Jarratt Arts Council England North East 07 Introduction Hebburn’s FLASH is the last art installation to take place as part Throughout the journey of the art work’s creation, many local of the Art on the Riverside project in South Tyneside. The project, sponsored residents have been involved, designing their own creative ‘sequences’, which by the Arts Council, National Lottery, along with the Tyne and Wear local reflect the emotions of those who worked in industry, on the river, or just authorities, is one of the largest public art programmes in the UK. Within South current users who walk or cycle in the area. For them the flashes or ‘sparks’ Tyneside, the Customs House arts centre and South Tyneside Council have of light relate to their everyday experience, and with a wide range of age worked with artists including Irene Brown, Bruce McLean, Juan Munoz and groups from the very young to the very old the project has cut across Martin Richman, to provide a series of major sculptures along many miles of and united different generations. These groups have developed a special the Tyne riverside. relationship with the artist, who in turn has developed a special relationship with Hebburn and its industrial heritage. Each of the sculptures has its own story to tell, and FLASH even more so because of the many obstacles it had to overcome. Like most public Tuesday 3rd March 2009, when FLASH@Hebburn was switched on art projects that succeed, it required courage and commitment from the artist for the very first time, was a very powerful experience. The rain and wind that and the many unsung heroes who all helped make it happen. Matthew Jarrett, provided a challenge up to the last minute, could not dampen the enthusiasm Pauline Moger and Heather Walton continued to ‘see the light’, and shared a and delight of the supporters who gathered on the river. Over the next few common passion that public art can be a catalyst for change. The local Hebburn weeks the project received considerable media attention, and this was a proud Elected Members have also continued to have faith in the project. period for the Hebburn Elected Members, officers of the Council, and the various community groups who had been engaged in the project. As each week Hebburn has a rich industrial legacy, with shipbuilding, marine goes by new converts admire FLASH and have new stories to tell. It is now a engineering and particularly Reyrolle Electrical Switchgear who alone recognised navigational aid on Port of Tyne shipping maps. transformed the prospects of the area for much of the 20th century. Dramatic steel structures and lighting were a dominant part of the local landscape, and That FLASH@Hebburn is a new light in the sky for Hebburn, is a as with many industrial regions, the poignant images of the past bring to mind testament to artist Charles Quick who has been determined to see the project the fact that when industry declines and redevelopment takes place we are through, no matter what obstacles were put in his way. Charles’s determination often left with a visual vacuum. to not give up when consultees of the various planning applications struggled to comprehend the scale and intensity of the installation, which in the event FLASH@Hebburn is a new beacon for Hebburn Riverside, and has would attract neither large swathes of aeroplanes nor fleets of super tankers continued the tradition of innovation in technology of which Reyrolle, Hawthorne to Hebburn Riverside, nor disturb wildlife Leslie, and other industrialists, would have been proud. The project has overcome a number of challenges as it has developed, and with each prototype In the end, all the stakeholders of the project can celebrate a new dawn the artist has produced, FLASH has used changing technologies to enhance its for the region. FLASH is a true beacon for the regeneration of the Riverside. objectives. Tony Duggan South Tyneside Council 08 09 “ Flash at Hebburn is a poignant “ I think that Flash at Hebburn way for the residents to celebrate will be seen as the perfect way their little town of industry. for people to reflect, remember Most people, who are born and and recognise what Hebburn bred in the area, love where they stands for, and a way for live and are simply bursting those individuals involved to with pride. give something back to their local community.” Ron Tatum 10 11 Hebburn Pages 12—25 Hebburn Hebburn Hebburn Collier, 1792 – 1931. Hebburn’s Shipyards I was interested in Hebburn Collier when I heard about its connection to Humphrey Davey’s Safety Lamp. R & W Hawthorn Leslie and Co. Ltd.: 1853 to 1993. Mines have always been places of light and shadows, and to begin with they used candles, which could The shipyards were a major source of the flashes of light and the sparks that lit the local night sky, whether cause explosions when mixed with the various gases in the mines. it was generated by the use of hot rivets in the early days, or the use of welding later on. At night, I have been told, it was ‘like firework night every night, with the welding and the arc lamps lighting up the banks In 1815, the inventor Humphrey Davey took gas from Hebburn ‘B’ pit in order to test his new lamp of the Tyne’. Many people told me that you didn’t need a watch if you lived in Hebburn, as you could hear the invention. Wine bottles of methane (‘firedamp’) were drawn from the pit and taken to London, where routine sound of the shipyard sirens, announcing start and finishing times for the shipyard workers, night the gas was used in tests in his laboratory. The new lamp was then tested in Collier at Hebburn. and day. I first visited the Hawthorn and Leslie site in 1989 when I was taking part in a coach tour of sites for the TSWA Four Cities Art Project. We walked through the yard to get to HMS Cavalier moored on the Miners all around the world soon benefited from this new ‘Davey’ safety lamp, which not only functioned Tyne, which was to be one of the sites for a temporary artwork. Little did I know at the time that sometime successfully, but actually burned the ‘firedamp’ entering the gauze, slightly increasing its efficiency to later I would be looking through those famous gates again. produce light.