A couple of years ago, whilst on one of my *many* quests to divert bouncy castle fabric from landfill, i stumbled across a website, with an inflatable stone henge as its background... i phoned them straight away..
"yes, we made that piece, its life size you know.." was about as far as i got. I knew then, it would be a long shot to ever find its whereabouts or how it had even come about, then, as we all know, life gets in the way...
There we were, 18 months later, ironically, accepting another delivery of pallets stuffed with bouncy castles and remnants, when the workshop phone rang...
"Hi, I've been made aware of your Inflatable Amnesty and was wondering if you would be interested in diverting quite a large scale piece from landfill?"
I sat on the floor, [which i often do when i know a call is important, otherwise i pace, distractedly from workbench to workbench] "yes?... go on...."
Jeremy Deller | Sacrilege [2012] is :
"A co-commission between Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art and the Mayor of London, the work was enormously popular when, supported by Creative Scotland, it appeared in Glasgow in 2012. With support from Arts Council England it traveled around the country as part of London 2012." **
It was the piece i had seen previously, but given up hope of finding...
I remember visiting Stonehenge as a child and not being able to touch the stones. Im not sure when that came about or if it has always been the case, but i remember being disappointed.
I understood the reasons of preservation behind it, but it felt a bit distant. Like i couldn't really understand the stones, without gently feeling their temperatures or textures. That feeling stayed with me into adulthood, so I've always been weirdly drawn to them.
Sacrilege is, to me [and thousands of others, I'm sure] a stroke of absolute genius! Allowing people to access both a work of art AND monument, both of which are synonymous with NOT being able to physically touch or interact- yet this *life size* [40 metres X 40 metres] piece, bounces up to 200 people at a time!
After some logistical issues [namely storage!] we are so excited to FINALLY reveal that we now have the decommissioned Sacrilege piece HERE with us, on the island!
With the help of a very good friend [and HIS very good friends/ family...] we have been able to transport and store it here, to salvage in its entirety and make into bags
Usually, i would end a post, with a picture of the finished product- this time, i really didn't want to!
This is very much a labour of love in our camp- as well as a collaboration between us and all of you who have supported our Inflatable Amnesty from the beginning!
Over the coming weeks, we will share the first stages of its movement to the Island, so you can see the scale on which we're working [the piece is 5.5 tonnes in weight!]
Its quite daunting making the first incisions in the piece, but we will document and share those with you too- along with every other stage of the process...
Many MANY thanks to the artist Jeremy Deller, for having the foresight to not send it to landfill, along with the Mayor of Londons office for making the transition of such an enormous piece, as smooth as possible...
https://www.jeremydeller.org/Sacrilege/Sacrilege.php
image: artforum.com
[originally published July 2015]