Bath’s lost art

[Not much to see of the wind mobile now]

I didn’t want to start the week off in a bad mood, but a trip over to Take Charge on the Lower Bristol Road, to get them to look at my bike, did not end well.

Nothing to do with this bike shop, from which I have purchased several electric bikes, and where I get good service.

In fact, I have to thank Albert and his Allen key for ridding me of the rotational click in my front wheel, which had been driving me mental.

It was more to do with what I saw on my way across the old Homebase site and back into town.

Over many years, I have hoped to see action in rescuing a wind mobile sculpture, gradually being lost to sight by the encroaching shrubbery and brambles.

It’s called Nails, and it was commissioned from artist Peter Logan, back in 1987, by Sainsbury’s Homebase.

The store has long gone, and planning permission was granted for residential accommodation on the site.

The developers have been so helpful in looking at the area of land they now own to see if this work was included. They promptly told me it was not.

I turned to Sainsbury’s press office to see if they could help rescue the sculpture and maybe, with goodwill, allow it to be moved to Victoria Park or Sydney Gardens.

Having emailed several times, my efforts have been totally ignored.

This morning, I passed the site, and it looks as if the mobile is now broken and leaning to one side.

The sign which explained what it is has disappeared into the undergrowth.

We as a city are not exactly renowned for our exterior artwork, and I am so upset that this early example, from nearly forty years ago, seems now to be lost.

As the notice said – ‘Leave it to the Wind.’

By the way, Peter’s other work can be found in important collections, including the Tate Gallery, London, and has been exhibited in many international institutions and public spaces around the globe, including the Royal Academy of Arts, Whitechapel Gallery, Hayward Gallery and National Theatre in London; Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice; and the Museo Guggenheim, Bilbao; the Ville de Saint Nazaire; and the Hakone Museums in Japan.