A long-distance relationship
Sculptor oversees U.K. project — from Toronto.
Last summer, I became curious about my new neighbours after watching them on the street performing with some Muppet-like friends. I didn’t want to interrupt their video shoot and, COVID-19 being the great social isolator, their puppetry remained a mystery. But I recently learned there’s another story here, with strings to another neighbourhood across the pond.
Austin Emery, one of the two puppeteers and their maker, is a Canadian sculptor and stonemason who lived in London, England, for more than 30 years. But in 2017, wary of Brexit fallout, he and his wife, Jolène, who runs a children’s entertainment and educational company (hence the puppets!), decided to move back to Canada with their four kids. Emery continued work on a sculpture-inprogress from a distance, commuting to London for two years until the pandemic put a stop to overseas travel.
While many of us remain physically disconnected from our co-workers, Emery has been separated not only from his studio and the 20-tonne, eight-metre-long sculpture that now sits in Tanner Street Park in South London near the Tower Bridge, but also from the community who helped him create it.
“Cornerstone” is a unique collaborative effort, a grassroots project initiated by Emery that features sculpting by more than 100 residents of a communityhousing estate in Bermondsey where his family also lived. Each stone is unique, representing its sculptor, with etched-in faces, shapes like hearts and diamonds, swirling patterns and words, carved out of Portland stone, a ubiquitous local building material.
In 2013, Emery solicited interest through flyers, inviting residents to learn how to sculpt through a series of free workshops. While group contributions to painted murals are quite common, teaching people how to carve stone for an artwork is rare.
“It generated this sense of power in the actual material, which they transformed. It wasn’t a usual top-down commission,” says Emery. “People’s engagement and interest was so much more than I anticipated and, because of that, I had to work extra hard to make sure I finished everything, from funding to approvals to getting it into the ground.”
This was the second project of its kind that Emery had undertaken and so he was aware that most of the effort was yet to come. His first challenge was finding a nearby space large enough so that he could begin the laborious task of creating one seamless, cohesive sculpture.
“It’s like making a mini castle out of stone using traditional materials, resin or dowels,” says Emery, who estimates that he spent about 1,000 hours assembling the 100-plus stones, which were also “stitched together” using salvaged materials he gathered from various historical sites he worked on, such as Westminster Abbey. Much of that time was spent ensuring that the sculpture would be socially relevant for the contributors, for example, having the stones they carved face their homes or where they play.
“It was laborious, but also super empowering and fulfilling,” he says.
From Toronto, Emery worked with a team through the bureaucracy of securing site approvals and rounds of fundraising, even receiving support from the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. When the COVID-19 travel bans hit, Emery became a master at long-distance communication, maintaining hope that he could be there for the launch. No such luck.
After several delays, “Cornerstone” was installed in December, each of its 10 two-tonne pieces travelling by truck to its final destination. The official launch, initially scheduled for a street festival, happened without Emery, who watched by Zoom.
While Emery is sad he missed the event, he sees an opportunity to produce similar community-based projects a little closer to home. He is currently applying for commissions for sites in Toronto.
“Let’s bring this sense of collective belonging and ownership here,” he says.