THE REMOVAL of a ‘landmark’ sculpture from headland on the south-west coast shows ‘a lack of respect for artworks in the environment in Jersey’, according to its creator – one of the Island’s most well-known contemporary artists.
Emily Allchurch’s ‘Wax and Wane’, which had been in place near Corbière since it was commissioned by the Jersey Sculpture Trust in 1995, has been removed by the government after two of its concrete slabs fell down and others became unsafe, according to the government’s environment manager Tim Liddiard.
Ms Allchurch, whose photographic work has been internationally acclaimed, said she was ‘saddened’ and ‘disappointed’ by its removal.
‘Whilst I appreciate Tim Liddiard’s apologies after the event, I do think it demonstrates something of a lack of respect for artworks in the environment in Jersey, which saddens and disappoints me. Perhaps this affair offers an opportunity for the Island to re-evaluate its approach to the arts, and to learn to more greatly appreciate and look after those works which are still in existence, as well as liaise with relevant consultants in the event that maintenance is required.
‘It has been a very sudden ending to an important landmark in my early career which I was always very proud of, and looked forward to visiting – like an old friend – whenever I was in the Island, and I was always touched by how committed my parents were to its regular upkeep,’ she said.
Mr Liddiard said that the sculpture was currently at the Natural Environment team’s building at Howard Davis Farm. ‘No final decision has been taken on what to do next and I’m now in contact with the artist,’ he said.
Ms Allchurch’s father, Tony, described his dismay when he and his wife realised that the ‘feature of the landscape’ which they had ‘been and looked at many times over the past 30 years’ was gone, leaving a ‘bare patch of land’. He said it was a ‘shame’ that neither his daughter nor the Jersey Sculpture Trust had been informed that it was due to be removed.
Now an acclaimed photographer whose work is currently on view in London and in a major international exhibition in the French town of Nancy, Ms Allchurch no longer makes sculptures. Her father said that this gave her Corbière creation a ‘special historical meaning’, particularly to those who knew her then as ‘an emerging talent’.
He described ‘Wax and Wane’ as a ‘landmark which everyone who passed by Corbière was intrigued by’. He explained that his daughter designed the sculpture to reflect the ‘competition between the natural and industrial landscape’.
‘It is a sad thing to lose a piece of public art like that, as there is so little across the Island and especially in the countryside,’ he added.
In 2011 the government faced criticism after a bronze sculpture depicting flying ducks that once stood in the Airport’s departure lounge was left neglected in a field on the Island’s north coast. Titled Décollage, the artwork went on to be installed in the middle of the roundabout at the entrance to the Airport, where it remains.
