Helen has art mapped out
What happens if you ask 100 artists to create an original piece of artwork using all or part of a ranom y se ec e r nance Survey Map?
The answer is displayed in the gallery of artist Helen Birmingham’s home at 5 Belle Vue Parade, Scarborough.
hen the Ordnance Survey offered its old maps, Helen, who works as an art teaching assistant at Scalby School, put in a bid and took deliver of 100 of them.
These were sent out to 100 artists living and working in Scarborough, Whitby, Bridlington, Ryedale and beyond and 87 were returned.
“That’s an amazing take-up,” said Helen. “Artists are notorious for saying they will do something and then don’t or miss the deadline.
“The brief was open the artists had to create something from the map, part of it or be inspired by
. map they were sent.
“The exhibits are all of such good quality and diverse – no piece is the same ” she said.
Everywhere you look there is something different to see – inevitably for the coastline there are seagu s, merma san seals.
Katie Gill has created a Tolkein-esque assemblage called the Rollright Stones inspired by Banbury, a quilt called Ode to Banbury by Liz Gregory.
It’s decoration includes Ride a Cockhorse nursery rhyme, Banbury Cross, a Mosquito areoplane made b the De Havilland factory, the Edgehill battlesite and Hook Norton Brewery.
There is a Viking ship, a pair of walking boots, a bag of chips, a pair of flip-flops, a lamp and a 1950s-sytle jacket.
Liverpool is represented by a picture of the Beatles and Stoke on Trent by a picture of ceramics.
Helen’s piece is called Per Ardua Libertas – Freedom Through Adversity – inspired by the escapemap work of MI9 during the Secodn orld ar. Among the most popular pieces are Spread Your Wings by Dorothea Newham and All Along the Coast – an eight-piece paper mache sculpture by York-based Helen Ventruss.
This will be raffled at £1 a ticket.
Map runs at the Studio Gallery, 5 Belle Vue Parade, Scarborough, until February 26. It is open Thursday to Sunday from 2pm to 6pm.
For Coastival weekend, this Saturday and Sunday, it is open from 10am to 4.30pm.