Engaging community in the arts can provide a powerful medium for social and environmental commentary. Concrete Cows is a collaborative installation created in 1978 by Liz Leyh, a Canadian born artist. She was commisioned as an artist in residence to collaborate with local school children to create a whimsical bovine herd. This interactive work was initiated by the Milton Keynes development corporation.
Milton Keynes was a famous modern initiative designed as a public art program to develop the community during a time of change. The artworks created at the time still exist as a sculptural walk today. The environmental installation created by Leyh endures to engage audiences both young and old with didactic environmental content. The attractive and yet gangly cow sculptures were created from recycled materials. The strategy of community involvement by coopting locals in the production of the interactive ensemble was successful and the Friesian cows are regarded as an unofficial logo of the county.
The three cows and three calves were created from scrap skinned with fiber glass reinforced concrete donated by local builders. It was a serious aspect of Leyh's role as Artist in Residence to lead community engagement and to work within the community encouraging the locals to participate in the art.
Ambling Through Leyh's Bovine Installation
This slide show of the concrete cows has been well constructed as a photographic essay by Nelson Cunnington a graphic designer who posted it to Flickr. His shots capture the stockiness of the sculptures, which are of a simplified graphic cartoon style. It is the simplicity of form that captures naturalistic poses; theatrically portraying the unabashed normality of mother child bonding. Cunnington dramatically leads the slideshow viewer toward the installation as though he were a gallery tour guide. Commencing his well crafted expose by walking under a bridge Cunnington focuses his camera toward the pavement, which signs towards the installation with the word MOO.
Although the whole project is laced with humour there is a serious and provocative aspect of Leyh's work through which she talks about the encroachment of the concrete jungle into the landscape around Milton Keynes. This social comentary aspect of the artistic statement is discussed by Michael Synott on Buck's TV
Didactic Power of Installation Sculpture
The installation Concrete Cows has been welcomed as an enduring tourist attraction for the surrounding district. As noted in the movie by Synott the work was replicated doubling the power of the message of environmental denouement as it lingers. Then sculptures are half-life size and this means the assemblage has an ambling "stretched out" quality thus inviting viewers to walk in and through it as though wandering in a nostalgic museum. This nostalgic atmosphere further underscoring the impact of a timely environmental statement.
No longer the novalty that this work was at the time of creation teachers the world over now emulate this teaching strategy.
Resources:
- Illuminations. The Sculpture England's public Sculpture 1905-2005. DVD. Pub 2005.
- Michael Synott Second Choice on Buck's TV
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