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
SUN SCULPTURE
The Sun Sculpture was commissioned by Bognor Regis Town Council and Arun District Council and funded by Arts Council England. It is an 8m x 2m x 2m composite sculpture that was designed as a landmark sculpture for Bognor Regis Town Centre. It was decommissioned in 2016, for redevelopment purposes, and donated to the University of Portsmouth where it will be installed in 2018.
MAMGU
Mamgu is a landmark sculpture in Glan Y Nant near Caerphilly, Wales, UK. It is a composite steel and cold cast resin bronze sculpture. It is 13m high. Mamgu is Welsh for grandmother and is symbolic of the maternal history of the community and of the site as an old play ground. It is referred locally to as ‘The Spirit of the Stream’ and is tided into the local mythology and tradition of the nearby mountains and forests. She is positioned overlooking a the direction of the culvert ( under ground river) that passes through this valley, before the main road was built over it. Installed in 2010.
WOOLSTON MILLENNIUM GARDEN 1998 -2001
Woolston Millennium Garden is a town centre landscape designed and made with the local Community Association in Partnership with Southampton City Council and The National Lottery. Pete designed all of the sculpture and landscape elements, project managed with SCC and oversaw the daily build for the site. The theme of ‘Flight & Float’ stems from the local history of the Spitfire aeroplane, Schneider Trophy flying competitions, Vosper Thornycroft ship building and old fishing community of the River Itchen. 1999-2002
FREEMANTLE PAVILION
Freemantle Pavilion is located in Freemantle Park Southampton. It is a composite structure approx 5m x 5m x 5m. It was commissioned by Southampton City Council led by a local Youth Group who wanted somewhere cool to ‘hang out’. The unique resin surface changes colour two-tone style as you pass from golden browns to greens. The back of the structure is a dedicated graffiti wall. It two Awards, One from The Deputy Prime Minister 'Safer Neighborhood Spaces' ( or something ). They set fire to it a few years later with stolen moped.
Arundel Street Precinct - Portsmouth City Centre 2002 -2005
I worked on the city centre design as Lead Artist with Portsmouth City Council Design Team for two years. A follow on from a previous Arts Council England ‘Art at the Centre’ grant where I supplied a ‘vision’ for the high street.
The benches are made from rolled stainless steel, laser cut with a facsimile of the original manuscript handwriting of Charles Dickens, the drawings of WL Wyllie, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the scrolled correspondence of Sir Walter Beasant and George Meredith.
This was developed with PCC through workshops and community engagement. Over three years I provided the overall ‘vision’ concept and landscape with public art elements, text in pavement and seating planting scheme etc. through to the fabrication of these elements and installation. There are seven sculptural benches, some with wooden seats, each celebrate a historical/cultural figure from the city’s history. There a relevant text and quotes from the local authors etched into in the pavement.
PORTSEA PUBLIC ART PROJECT 2001 - 2010
The John Pounds Community Center on Queens Street in Portsea, Portsmouth, is a new build bespoke community and medical centre in the heart of the dockyard community area of Portsmouth Harbour.
Pete worked as the Lead Artist from the beginning of the project through build to completion. It is an award winning urban regeneration project. His role was to work with the community to develop themes and creative approaches to the basic interior and exterior works.
He designed and physically made the majority of the street furniture and collaborated with the design team architect and landscape architect on architectural details, hard landscape features and general aesthetics.
There three main large gate features here, the main vehicular entrance, the ‘Hands’ pedestrian and the Peace Garden stone gates. There are also 47 hard carved wooden bollards, 25 colourful steel bike racks and many other landscape features. Artist in Residence, Lead Artist and designer 2001 -2010
ONE MILLION PEBBLES 1994 - 2011+
One Million Pebbles is a ‘sculpture’ made from 25 tons of clay between 1994 – 2011. ~17 years on one artwork. These hand made ceramic pebbles are individually number stamped. They were made with the public, est. 400k people, over many years and have been thrown into the sea on Southsea Beach, Portsmouth UK. To see more info and imagery visit the One Million Pebbles Facebook page and see the growing archive of those found on the beach.
