‘The Oakdale Arms has closed and is being knocked down – sad to see it go’
This free-standing sculpture intervenes the exhibitions space, becoming an obstacle that defines the direction and way you move around it, functioning in the same way hoarding defines the space it demands, bringing an awareness to the inside space that was once public which you do not share with it.
Hoardings are barriers that conceal spaces, but they also act as surfaces that facilitate conversation and visibility e.g. through graffiti tags and fly posting. The sculpture utilises this dual function. From the front, the hoarding is to a large extent used as a public canvas, one where people claim their space through such tags despite methods of removal and editing made by official councils. Round the back, this once very public online conversations are revealed, found from blogs about The Oakdale Arms. Here information and text is not edited or selected but the whole timeline of conversation is accessible.
Once viewing the sculpture form 360 degrees, what can you understand about the history of the site? Was the loss all that great?
