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Quayside sculpture in award success

The centrepiece of the newest development on Newcastle’s Quayside, Trinity Gardens, has won a prestigious national arts award. The ‘Give and Take’ installation of a giant granite boulder is this year’s winner of the Marsh Award for Public Sculpture, organised by the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association.

The sculpture, created by Peter Randall-Page, was designed in conjunction with Silverlink Property Development. Give and Take is part of Newcastle’s Hidden Rivers project which marks key sites in acknowledgement of the historic, social and economic importance of five burns running deep beneath the city.

The sculptured 35 tonne glacial erratic boulder over Pandon Burn carries a matrix of 630 hexagons and 12 pentagons, a pattern occurring in natural structures. It sits on a circular cobbled base reminiscent of a riverbed, within an amphitheatre co-designed by the artist and the landscape architect Ros Southern.

Peter Randall-Page said: “I am delighted to receive this award. It was a pleasure to work with such a visionary client as Silverlink. It is unusual in that they chose to work with an artist who they trusted based on previous work and personal chemistry. “Following my appointment I worked closely with Silverlink to develop the design for the sculpture. Being part of the project from the beginning also led to me co-designing the surrounding landscape and street furniture for the site - something not normally considered until a development is complete.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .