Art lost to brambles.

Crest Nicholson are rightly celebrating all the new art that has been installed in and around the new Queen Elizabeth Park at their Riverside development.

However, l am disgusted at how one much earlier installation – further along the riverbank and not part of the Crest development – is currently being treated.

Artist Peter Logan was commissioned to produce his kinetic sculpture Nails by Homebase – back in 1987 – while the gas holders and other industrial dereliction still lay in situ. It’s positioned near the River Avon at the Green Park station edge of the site.

Now – 32 years later – only the top piece of the sculpture stands free of all consuming bramble. The original notice –  which explains what it is and who put it there – is completely lost to view.

Peter, who was born in 1943, has made kinetic sculpture since 1968 – using wind, electricity and solar power to provide movement for his works.

Nails is a wind mobile structure made from lightweight aluminium.

The lower nails rotate on a central pivot allowing the sculpture to face into the wind.

The upper four nails have been balanced to rest horizontal in still air and the pressure of the wind upon the surface of the nails causes them to turn.

In a good breeze the sculpture will reach a height of 41 feet and will come to rest at 31 feet if the wind completely drops.

The whole site is due for  re-development as a massive residential complex – if planning permission is granted – for our more wealthy senior citizens.

Let’s hope something can be done to make this early piece of River Avon artwork better appreciated.