artist STATEMENT: Cecil Balmond
The Star of Caledonia will be located close to the A74(M) at Gretna Green. The artwork will act as a metaphor for the dynamism of the Scottish nation symbolising the energy and power of Scottish invention and will be a welcome to Scotland.
The concept for the Star began with the border drawn as a dashed line. In between the gaps the journeys are marked as a series of waves flowing in and out. They are different in amplitudes and frequencies. This scenario of multiple waves offers a field of energy. Patterns emerge when you zoom in on the waves, including the image of the Saltire. As my metaphor for energy evolved, I focused on the curves folding over each other as representation for Scottish brainpower.
I ran curves along the surface of a virtual sphere and instinctively intercepting and crossing them with rods. These slow the eye as it travels the curves. The rods and curves act as one art piece with two aspects contingent on one another.
Scotland has produced many of the scientists who defined today’s technological world. Telephones, steam engines, TV, logarithms, penicillin, the list is long. Looming large in this pantheon was James Clerk Maxwell, who lived and worked in the region, and his discovery of electromagnetism, essential to our descriptions of energy.
Electromagnetism is one concept in juxtaposed phases: electricity and magnetism. Each is a field of force acting independently to the other at right angles but combining as one effect. The Star’s geometry does just that, adopting a mathematical formulation in the spirit of science and Maxwell. It is defined by three functions, each a progression along the three axes of Cartesian space. The functions are matched against a variable T for time run.
The rods converge vertically at the heart of the top plateau. As a visitor approaches the centre and looks up, the rods point towards them. What may have seemed a random positioning suddenly lines up. The Star becomes unique to the viewer and its energies become one with the visitor.
The Landscape
The supporting landform draws its inspiration from the Star. Entry paths curving upwards, travel the length of the field to the top plateau, in tightening curves formed by overlapping ellipses. Like planetary orbits the ellipses imprint a sense of gathering energy towards the Star.
A water body separates the two approaches with reflections of The Star. The mirrored reflection of the artwork may reveal, for the keen observer, the continuity of the single energy line that forms the artwork curves.
An amphitheatre will provide a key panoramic view of both The Star and its supporting landscape. Sitting as a key waypoint on the journey to and from the artwork the amphitheatre forms a hub for meeting, learning and engagement. In due course it is hoped to develop a visitor hub with education, exhibitions and retail space.
The car parking for the site is arranged in a series of small rippling waves. underscoring the energy patterns of the larger elliptical geometries of the landscape, and the Star itself. Permeable surface finishes will be used through main parking areas with overflow onto fully grassed zones.
Gardens for gathering, picnicking and play provide further opportunities and experiences.
In a wider context, The Star will provide an opportunity for enrichment of existing site biodiversity. A diversification of existing flora and fauna created through introduction of water, wetlands and planting.
