

Last weeksaw the official launch of a new public artwork for Sandown, ‘U R Here’ created by Ventnor based artist Nathan Holt (www.myspace.com/iam8theincarn8). The piece is situated at Eastern Gardens on Sandown Seafront and was initially inspired by the natural lines and contours of Sandown Bay. It is a fresh, bold, bright and positive design which we hope will increase the sense of place to the area and be a welcome investment into the local public realm. It incorporates the sun rising from the East above Culver Cliff and the sun setting in the West over Luccombe.
Nathan produced the artwork in enamelled steel during a residency at the AJWells studios based in Newport using a combination of techniques including spraying, screen printing and hand painting. The 5 large steel panels were then fired twice at over 800°c. The medium of vitreous enamel allows the artwork to be
displayed permanently outside as it has an exceptional resistance to all the elements. Using enamel also means that the colours are fade resistant and those of us who were there for the launch witnessed their amazing intensity as the October sunlight really made the colours sing.
AJ Wells produce all the signage for the London Underground and many of the familiar Tube Line colours were used in the artwork. We’ll have an image indicating them here on the blog sometime soon. The company very kindly also produced, with Nathan, a limited edition set of enamelled coasters to celebrate the artwork. (VentnorBlog had a number of these which they are giving away as a competition if you want to get your hands on one).

The artwork is the part of a project called ‘What if?’ which asked local people what artwork they would like on the Island’s Esplanades. The most original and intriguing ideas were compiled into the ‘What if…?’ Book and then Island 2000 entered the competitive Art+ Awards to get funding to help start making some of the ideas a reality. As part of the process Eastern Gardens was regularly brought up as a site that would be ideal for attention and an injection of creativity. Because of the nature and exposed positioning of the site it was a challenge to come up with a solution that might be practical, attractive and the correct scale and ambition to work within the space.


Art Plus is a competitive award scheme led by Arts Council England, South East and the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) which seeks to improve our environment - whether streets, schools or other public spaces – by including the creativity of artists in their design. It is an awards scheme for ideas for innovative public art projects that could take place in the south east. www.artscouncil.org.uk/artplusaward
Many thanks to all those involved in the realisation of this project in particular Nathan Holt, Ced Wells, David Knight and Stuart Marlton.
More images of this and other projects are on our Island 2000 Arts Flickr site