Everything you need to build a town is here

Abstract

‘Everything you need to build a town is here was not conceived in an artist’s studio,’ suggest the artists, ‘but only really emerged after several months of reconnaissance walking – not only in the obvious places, like the seafront and the town centre – but also in the industrial, post-industrial, residential and edgelands of Weston.’ Through this extensive site research, Wrights & Sites have developed a constellation of 41 signs that each engage with their immediate vicinity and are dispersed across Weston-super-Mare. Each of the signs refers to aspects of architecture in Weston-super-Mare – whether grand, municipal, amateur, accidental, forgotten, part-demolished or imagined – and contains a carefully worded instruction, observation or comment, designed to encourage the reader to think again about its specific location, to conduct an action or thought experiment. The signs have been organised into eight interconnecting layers – The Panoptic, Foundations, The Great Architect, The Amateur Builder, The Botanical, Light, Time, Ands – each of which is indicated by a symbol incorporated into the signs. The locations are widely scattered from public gardens, to the museum, car parks, restaurants and allotments. The design of the signs has been influenced by an existing sign found in Uphill village, at the southern edge of Weston-super-Mare, and almost all will appear in a location without interpretation or explanation. The artists describe how the Old Town Quarry operates as a keystone site for the series, at the entrance to which visitors are able to locate a map and description of the project in its entirety