Hayley Newman

 A Secret Sculpture, 2006-2007

A Secret Sculpture was a public art-work made for Rochford Reservoir, Essex. The work was commissioned by Commissions East as part of Art U Need. Much of the process to make the sculpture took place outdoors on bleak, cold days over the winter months of 2006-7. A Secret Sculpture was the public making of a sculpture, staged over 3 months though a series of events.

The sculpture was designed by school children in secret, before being made into a giant puzzle-like sculpture by a local craftsperson. It was made from cut-out marine-ply shapes, riveted together by an old ship-building technique called roving. Once built, the sculpture was taken apart, and the pieces were weighted by a thousand horseshoes before being thrown into Rochford Reservoir by Dive Odyssea, an inland dive club based in the town.

After being left at the bottom of the reservoir for a week, the sculpture pieces were retrieved by the same group of divers: nearly all segments were found.

The sculpture/puzzle pieces were laid out on the banks of the reservoir and another group arrived to reassemble it. With no idea what the sculpture was, the group made a number of attempts at solving the puzzle and the sculpture took on different forms. A puzzle-loving St. John’s Ambulance person, who was on duty at the time, saw it that it was three interlocking ducks and the group managed to re-build the sculpture in its original form, without the missing pieces.

The final iteration of the work was installed on the island despite freezing temperatures, gales and rain. I was mildly disappointed that it reverted to the original duck design, and didn’t transform into a wild sea creature or something else more surprising.