The Luton Host

A public art work (painting).

I was invited to propose a public artwork, a large painting, for Luton Culture's public art programme, As You Change So Do I. This was curated by Dr Andrew Hunt (curator and writer) and Mark Titchner (artist); the programme also included works commissioned from Mark Titchner, Polly Apfelbaum, Abi Spendlove and Yuri Patterson.

On a site adjacent to the Hat Factory Arts Centre and Storefront Art Gallery, on a route between Luton Station and the town-centre’s ‘Mall’ shopping centre, used by a large number of visitors and commuters, often on a daily basis, and visible from the ‘Hat Factory’ cafe and other adjacent amenities and businesses.

The work drew attention to a previously overlooked, neglected public space by immediate optical impact — by means of the fluorescent industrial paint used as a base for the work — and was designed to encourage greater use of the space by visitors and performers; to provoke increased use of the raised space in front of the wall that forms a ‘stage’ at the corner of two streets.

• https://asyouchange.co.uk/projects/billb...