Jo Chapman

Fruitpicking 2009

Wisbech Library, Cambridgeshire

Lead artist for a year long public art project to make a permanent artwork for the refurbished library in Wisbech and to engage with the community resulting in:

Drawing in laser cut stainless steel with perspex inserts that wraps around the ground floor and up the stairs. Stainless steel bookends using text from the workshops of memories and poems by local people. Photographic shelf ends.

The artwork was a composite image that draws from the fen landscape, the fruit cultivation and market gardening heritage of Wisbech, combined with the contemporary local industry of food processing which is reflected in the use of stainless steel, the artwork was produced by a local engineering company who normally produce items for the local food factories for canning and processing.

The consultation included: workshops with primary schools, special needs school, the Polish community, Help the Aged; open days, consultation on the mobile library; design a bookmark competition.