Forward Back Together, 2014
© Simon Pope
Forward Back Together explores the material transformations of Raymond Mason’s sculpture Forward (1991), commissioned by the Birmingham City Council, given as a gift to the people of Birmingham and later destroyed by that very same ‘public’. Using a participatory methodology, this dialogic work took the form of archival research, a series of meetings with key participants, a script-development workshop and a public roundtable held at Vivid Projects in June/July 2013. Forwards Back Together explores how various publics, produced at each point of the statue’s transformation, might improvise an account of Forward’s life as a public artwork from the artist’s proposal, the commissioning process, manufacture and installation, arson attack and its final removal. Selected documentary archive below.
Click here for the invite for the public to take part
Click here for the limited edition transcript
Click here for the audio file (starting at 10′) of ‘in conversation’ event
A limited edition of the performance workshop transcript was made available at a public ‘in conversation’ event with Simon Pope & Dr. Saskia Warren on 6th July 2013 at Vivid Projects, 16 Minerva Works, 158 Fazeley Street, Digbeth, Birmingham, B5 5RS.