'Iron Gym'

28 July - 12 August 2012

LV21 Lightship, Gillingham.

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‘Iron Gym’ was a 2011/2 project initiative of mine, which recruited Kent University students of Sports Science, Architecture and Fine Arts. It aspired to produce a series of installations incorporating artefacts that referenced the heritage past and stakeholder group interests, and which comprised exercise ‘stations’ that formed a trail through the Medway towns. Workshops, combined with an approach employing a Participatory Action Research methodology (reflective practice, action planning, and problem solving), generated maquettes and prototypes in time for the 2012 Olympics and these were exhibited on the LV-21 Lightship as part of the Jubilee and Olympic celebrations.

 

Thereafter it was nominated for the 2012 Medway Cultural and Design Awards, but didn't win, additional funding was not forthcoming, and core participants graduated or moved on to other projects. However, the idea was submitted to the Skyline sculpture project in 2013 at Brompton Academy, Gillingham, where it won the public vote - although sadly was not adopted by the commissioned artist, who said 'I'm not having people climbing all over my work'!

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Watch the video