Tom Hicks – Transport for West Midlands Commission

Ikon, in partnership with Transport for West Midlands (TFWM), has commissioned Black Country artist Tom Hicks to co-create a new public sculpture with members of the local community at the Cross Street Local Travel Point in Halesowen – a public green space providing options for active and environmentally friendly local travel. We caught up with Tom Hicks for a fabrication update on the project.

Please give us an update on the project so far.

During the first phase of my design for the commission, I worked closely with local people on photowalks in Halesowen and it was lovely to see the range of images that people shared with me. A really exciting development during this time was seeing my work on the commission featured in the prestigious British Journal of Photography. The writer Rachel Segal-Hamilton came to one of the photowalks that focused on photo-poetry.

My art practice closely identifies with words, letterforms, signs and symbols. These became a feature of discussion during the walks and it felt natural to look at including them on the final artwork in some way. The artwork will be made of aluminium, which will be powder-coated in colours drawn from one of my photographs. A key part of this phase of my design has been an exploration of how letters can applied to metal.

I’ve also been working carefully on the development of the overall design of the artwork – moving from working with sketches and small development models to drawing the object in actual size. While this may seem an old-fashioned approach, drawing the artwork by hand at 1:1 scale means you can really start to appreciate the impact of each feature. I’ve been able to change the dimensions of some elements before translating everything into a final design.

Can you describe the manufacturing process?

My artwork will be attached to an existing frame provided by TFWM and this will be installed at their new travel hub in Halesowen. My design has been developed to almost completely envelop the form of the frame.

I selected metal as the material as it’s something I regularly photograph – either on large buildings or on smaller, individual objects. Factory units in particular are now almost entirely made of corrugated metal and I felt its important to acknowledge this approach to building in the artwork itself. The final artwork has a design that is punctuated by repeat patterns, largely influenced by surface pattern designs I’d seen in Halesowen.

I’ve also continued to research industrial designers and artists, including Jean Prouvé who introduced circular motifs into some of his buildings. Throughout the design process I experimented with a range of cut-out shapes and was interested in allowing light to move through the artwork.

I’ve now arranged to have pen drawings translated into full CAD drawings and made several visits to factories in the region to explore approaches to metal fabrication. This has been a really interesting phase of the project as it’s an entirely new experience for me; I’m more used to photographing factories than going inside them. The manufacturer I’m working with have been fantastic – open minded, curious and happy to explore solutions to some of my design ambitions.

During the coming weeks, my artwork will go to manufacture. It will be made to my design, using industrial laser cutting machines. The cut-out aluminium will be formed and bent into shape at the same factory. The metal itself will then be powder-coated in colours I’ve selected and matched to my photographs. This is all being produced by a factory in Netherton. From the moment I was commissioned, I was keen to ensure the artwork was entirely manufactured in the Black Country – this would make it both about and of the region.

What have been the learnings for you during this part of the process?

What are the next steps for the project?

The next stage will be production and assembly of the artwork. I’ll continue to photograph the production and it will be the subject of a short film documenting the final stages – including assembly and installation. TFWM will oversee the installation of the artwork at the Cross Street site and a launch event is planned.

I’m also developing ideas for the artwork so it has a legacy. I’m keen for it to become a site for other artists to use and during the design development I have been thinking of the artwork’s potential functional properties. For example, I’m interested in encouraging local artists to use it as a community canvas. It will be a robust, solid piece and artists and creatives could attach further temporary artworks. I’m seeing it as a collaborative opportunity – it would be interesting to speak with other artists who can look at ways to temporarily cover the piece, weave fabric through it or simply use it to display their own work.

Similarly, I think it has great potential for product designers who may want to develop functional objects that could be attached to the artwork. These legacy ideas will emerge once the final design has been revealed.