Heathlands Village

This architectural glass work was commissioned by The Fed in Manchester for their flagship redevelopment, Heathlands Village. The Fed is the leading social care charity for the Jewish Community of Manchester looking after 1000 people at any one time. The piece is a celebration of the organisation, its people, its process and its success.

The artwork was created, in collaboration with staff and residents, by Lauren Sagar, Sharon Campbell and Proto Studios.

During the consultation Lauren Sagar was struck by the many stories of how people came to be here; the journeys taken from all over the world, and how this community of journeying people has been harnessed over time and applied to the care of one another.

Detail threads through the landscape as simple skylines reflecting the many places that people have come from, and through; Lodz, Wilna, Jerusalem, Belfast, London, Constantinople, Vienna…These places change and shift as do people’s relationship with them; the changing light of the day may reveal and conceal parts of this detail.

Elements of Jewish life, such as the Menorah, the Shofar, the Torah scroll, even the apple that evokes a sweet new year at Rosh Hashanah, create movement in the landscape. These strong recognisable symbols of Jewish life give depth and structure.

Piccadilly Place

The Poetry Discs and the Ice Box were commissioned by Argent, The Piccadilly Partnership (including The Carlyle Group) and Arts & Business, as part of the large-scale development Piccadilly Place.

Poetry Discs 2006

Following an open poetry competition, local Manchester poet Mike Duff’s ‘A Poem for Manchester’ was selected to be integrated into a new public art work by Lauren Sagar and Sharon Campbell, sited at Piccadilly Place, Manchester. Entitled Poetry Discs this was a commission from property developers Argent, the Piccadilly Partnership and Arts & Business.

Working with a copper-wheel hand engraver the poem was cut, then polished into seven blue dichroic glass discs, which are set in a row on a black granite wall. The line of text follows the journey of a worker bee (seen on each disc), the city of Manchester symbol of industry and hard work. The mirrored characteristics of dark green-blue glass discs reflect differently depending on quality of light, time of day, the weather and the season. Creating a great setting for a poem, which speaks of diversity, difference and acceptance in Manchester.

This work has embedded itself into the iconography of Manchester: city dwellers, visitors and commuters take photographs of themselves alongside the discs, as a symbol and sign of being in Manchester. The artists were motivated to make an artwork that resonated strongly with all those in the city, work that builds a sense of identity and place.

The artwork is fantastic and something which is set out from all of our other developments.

From Argent to Arts & Business

The Ice Box 2008

Lauren Sagar and Sharon Campbell were asked to design the architectural glass for the structure encasing the car park’s air conditioning unit, which simultaneously functions to provide light in the surrounding pedestrian area at night. A translucent patina of swirling hand-drawn white markings are created on the surface of The Ice Box allowing it to visibly change throughout the day, responding to light, time of day and the seasons – sometimes the detailed patterns are blurry and at others sharp and in focus.

Summerhouse

Summerhouse

Central Manchester University Hospitals commissioned the building of the Summerhouse in the context of the rebuilding of St Mary’s Hospital. Sited in the grounds of the new Maternity Unit it creates a tranquil, flexible space within the busy environment of a hospital setting.

Created together with Sharon Campbell, Lauren Sagar imagined an abandoned and neglected Victorian Summerhouse: a simple glass structure apparently etched with a delicate tracery of decorative patterning reminiscent of a sumptuous glass-house of years gone by.

“…it has made the hospital a more positive and uplifting place to be… it is the ongoing projects that Sagar and Campbell have installed inside it that have created a sense of ongoing life and excitement.”

Susan Allison, Director of Corporate Services, Central Manchester University Hospitals

Summerhouse Interventions

On completing The Summerhouse in 2010, the artists were drawn to the potential for what could happen in the glasshouse itself, seeing it as a context for experimenting with installation ideas. They curated a series of interventions within the Summerhouse, where the positive responses of the staff at the hospital informed the development of the programme.

The programme included a live performance from cellist and performer Li Lu and an installation of stacked rolls of bed-sheets by artist Annie Harrison. There were further playful interventions from the artists themselves such as filling the glass structure with a multitude of white origami paper birds and a mass of huge white spherical balloons.