Pioneering Species @ Tynemouth Station

A temporary public artwork under development by rednile artists.

Pioneering Species Event Details

Rednile Projects Ltd have been commissioned by North Tyneside Council and the Tynemouth Station working group to undertake a large scale temporary public art work on the hoardings in Tynemouth Station. The project is underway and is aimed to be installed in mid June 2009.

Outline of Concept

Engagement:

Rednile will be working with people from allotment groups and keen gardeners in the North Tyneside area. It is hoped that this will be an exchange of information, that we can learn from their expertise and for us to introduce them to the exciting world of pinhole photography

Opportunity for adult workshops in Pinhole photography for North Tyneside Allotment Holders and Keen Gardeners. (View opportunities page)

Rednile will be working with a group from the fostering service located in Tynemouth Station, the group are working toward their GSCE’s in Photography and the sessions with rednile will count towards their grades. The young people will learn how to build a pinhole camera and be taken on a journey through local parks following the same ideas of exploration as the Victorians. The group will also visit Moorbank a secret Botanical garden in Newcastle University situated in the heart of Newcastle. (View website)

Photographs taken by the two groups will be showcased at the Health and Horticulture show at the Parks Centre, North Shields in August 2009

Launch Night:

The launch of Pioneering Species temporary public artwork will take place in mid June and will include an installation of real flowers and plants in the station, bringing the station back to life.

Anyone is welcome to bring along a flower or a plant or even a small tree to the launch to add to the celebration.

Dates and times to be confirmed if you are interested in taking part in the launch please contact rednile. (Contacts)

TYNEMOUTH STATION (A poem to commemorate the Pioneering Species project)

The station is memory. The station is nostalgia
The station is escape. The station is the echo
Of chuntering trains cascading steam
The pierce of a guard’s whistle
The spilling from carriages of men in paisley jumpers
Women in flowered frocks, short-trousered children.
The station is Kiss Me Quick hats on a Summer’s day
Seaside rock, the pale-faced ticket clerks trapped
In their small framed windows.
The station is illusion.

We have grown too small for this station.
Our modern trains are dwarfed. Unused platforms
Attract only weeds. Abandoned paint pots
Sit beneath rusting girders

Nor do we have time to raise our eyes
To the glass sky, nor spot the gentle spirographs
Wrought from toughest steel
The million rivets like a Swan Hunter hull
Nor dwell on the mystery of locked doors and
sealed windows which imprison another age.

All is not lost. Some things make us pause.
A restaurant, a shop, a clinic, a café, a week-end market
All slowing down our race
To be nowhere first.

And now flowers will return to their one-time home.
They will blaze in baskets, scent the air, soothe savage hearts.
They will arrive with no thought of leaving
Quietly content to remain life-long
A brilliant silent celebration, a colouring of our lives
Flashing their kaleidoscope reminders
That we should pause, sit, be silent, enjoy moments
Not of doing, or moving or straining, but
Like the flowers, simply of being.

Peter Mortimer (June 2009)

Event Images

Pioneering Species - a temporary public artwork under development by rednile artists.