The Enduring Tangerine Tree mosaic sculpture by Gary Drostle
Mrs Daley’s tangerine tree still stands in the new Eythorne Park in Myatt’s Field, Brixton. In the background is the new sculpture.
This was the story that inspired the new site specific Myatt’s Field artwork for Brixton in south London. For me the story symbolises the strength and edurance of the local community in Myatts Field North, and what I wished to create was a monument to that community, and a physical manifestation of that communities memory and history.
I envisioned the tangerine tree as the symbol and fruit of the community, with it’s roots as the local people and the earth it was growing in as the accumulated history of the area and it’s residents.
Myatts North Children’s Mosaic Workshop
In order to reflect the memories and history of the area I wanted to include photographs and images fired onto porcelain tiles to create a mosaic of memory. Gathering these pictures began with the community itself. Through workshops with local residents, a Facebook page, and attending community meetings I gathered the residents precious photographs and memories. These images were added to with historic research at the local Minet library and the black history archive and various related news and history websites. Images were selected to cover three basic groups: Personal and family photos (donated by the community); architecture (the changing face of the area, buildings, maps and street names; news and events (well know faces, events and history that made the area what it is today).
Once the hundreds images were gathered together they were rendered in a blue hue to harmonise the images together and then fired onto durable porcelain tiles. These tiles were then cut and laid into the mosaic.
The photo fired ties arrive in the studio.
Talking to residents and researching the history made me very aware that the history portrayed in the mosaic should be full, as one resident put it “the truth is bitter but it’s better”. By using the photographs, archive images, newspaper clippings, maps, posters and text extracts to bring together all aspects of the life and history of the community the result is amazing. When you stand and look at all these disparate images together, good times and bad times, your eyes jump between the detail of each event and the overall impression of the richness of the community.
Take a look at some of the hundreds of details and see all that makes Myatts Field North unique…
The final artwork was created by casting a seven metre high column in concrete on-site in the selected spot at the meeting point of a number of the parks paths.
While the concrete column cured the mosaic was made in the studio. Using hand made Venetian Glass Smalti Piastrina, Litovi hand made vitreous ceramic (a new material from France) and the photo printed porcelain, the mosaic was cut and constructed onto a temporary net backing. Construction of the mosaic took nine months and once complete the mosaic was transported to the site, cemented to the column, and grouted in.
Gary working on the Myatts Field Column
You can find ‘The Enduring Tangerine Tree – a celebration of the community of Myatts Field North’ at the junction of Cromwell Road and Eythorne Road, London, SW9.
