Pete Codling
SCULPTURE & PUBLIC ART
"There is often more art to making something good happen, than there is in the object we see at the end..."
Pete Codling
With 30 years experience in this field if you are looking for a Lead Artist or Consultant for your Public Art project please go to this page
TREADGOLD FISH 2019
The sculpture is named after the Treadgold Heritage Museum in Portsea, a 200 year old Iron Mongers and Forge. I was invited as Artist in Residence with The Portsmouth Seafood Festival and John Pounds Community Center to use up the scrap material left in the stock room before it was emptied for rebuild. The up-cycled sculpture has been travelling around the city and seafront since collecting plastic bottles for recycling and featured in many local environmental campaigns and community events. Seven thousands bottles collected in the first year alone. All bottles recycled locally. The shape is inspired by the ancient city motif of a star and crescent. The Jonah like dude in the middle, on his phone, is every man ... everyone.
Photos by: Paul Van Herck /Vernon White/Steve Bomford /Pete Codling.
EAGLE GATE 2018
The Eagle Gates on Upper Arundel Street are also part of St Edmund’s School and follow on from St Edmund’s main gate. Made of 316L mirror polished stainless steel and are 3m x 9m x 15cm wide. Installed Oct 2016. The eagle is part of school identity and is also a traditional Catholic symbol of Christ.
ST EDMUND’S SCHOOL GATE 2017
The St Edmund’s RC School project in Portsmouth includes two sets of gates; one is the main entrance to the school and one a pedestrian gate to the other side, ‘Eagle Gate’ which is on Upper Arundel Street at the pupil entrance.
This gate was commissioned in 2015 to tell the story of the school namesake and create a landmark feature for the school as it undergoes its own renaissance.
They are 5m x 3m x 30cm and are automated electric gates controlled via reception. There is a small pedestrian gate next to this which is also automated for security.
This was awarded the Portsmouth Society Best Landscape Design in 2016.
It is Pete’s old secondary school and he will working over the next few years to help improve its surroundings.
MINDS
‘Meeting of Minds’ is a mild steel and plexiglass sculpture made for a new school build in Basingstoke. It is a feature in one the curriculum garden/playgrounds. Its central position in the playground and seating element make it a popular meeting place and feature in the school landscape. It was commissioned by Hampshire County Council. Pete worked as Artist in Residence over two years helping with the transition from the old building to the new state-of-the-art school. 2007
SPIRIT OF PORTSEA
The Spirit of Portsea was a sculpture proposed by Pete to mark the ‘matriarchal’ spirit and unique history of women in the Portsea community. Portsea is the community immediately surrounding the historic Dockyards of Portsmouth. It has a colourful history and retains a strong character in overall identity of the city. Women in particular have had a strong role in shaping a community where most of the men were involved in sea-fare, merchant, navy or military and often absent. A trait still evident to the artist when he worked there over a ten year period as Lead Artist of the new build community centre and he proposed it as a final sculptural feature on the entrance archway.
The artwork was first made in clay then cast. The wet clay work surface was covered in finger prints only by girls and ladies from Portsea giving a very personal and lasting gesture in acknowledgement of the communities history and future aspirations. The two pieces face each other as open books with the clay bust that was made cast into the surface in negative. A young and an old side challenge the passer by to ‘fill the mold’ as they walk past into the courtyard. 2.5m x 1m x 25cm. X2. 2010