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MarketWatch

Blink Festival Latest -
Traders' Art Exhibit Wrecked by Council!

After a couple of Saturdays with nice shopping events, an Antiques market and a Continental market, this last Saturday was the first of the Blink festival. We had hoped to put at the top here a picture of the abstract exhibit which is currently on the centre of the Square, but this has had to take a back seat due to a traders news item. Sadly the first Saturday of the ‘festival’ was marred by the deliberate destruction of an abstract work of art exhibited (unofficially) by our market traders.

Inspired by the abstract sculptures of Laura Ellen Bacon, at present exhibiting in the centre of Northampton Market (see picture below), market traders put together their own abstract exhibit, called 'Spirit of the Market'.

This exhibit was shown at the edge of the central events area all Friday afternoon (23/07/10). Considerable interest was shown in the work, and local visiting arty people discussed it with nearby market traders and artists, and photographs were taken.

The exhibit was after the neo-conceptual style, with the base artefact being a market trestle. The exhibit was stored overnight, but when it was taken out on Saturday morning council workmen were ordered to destroy it. Protests from traders were ignored, and the exhibit was returned to them, totally wrecked, in the afternoon. See our before and and after photographs below.

Traders' Committee Chair Chris Domansky said: "I was appalled and angry at the destruction of this artistic abstract work the traders had put together. The council now owe us not only an apology, but need to replace those items that people had bought or borrowed. As usual we were not consulted before the exhibit was destroyed. We shall built a bigger and better one. Why should traders not contribute to an artistic event?"

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The Traders’ Exhibit

Wrecked

Bookseller Keith Westhead, who witnessed the creation of the exhibit, said he was astonished at the officially ordered destruction of the abstract work.

"It all started out as a bit of fun, after some of the traders had looked at the sculptures and chatted with the artists. They started to build this traders exhibit in the empty stall next to me. About six or more traders joined in, so it was a communal effort. It took awhile to put it all together because some bits were donated and had to be fetched from different traders, and some bits had to be bought. They had a lot of fun building it, helping each other.

Then it was put on display all afternoon near the stalls at the edge of the events area. Lots of people stopped and asked about it, artists came over and inspected it, and photographers took pictures of it. It was very well received, and I think some of the traders had got their hopes high for a showing at the Tate.

In the end it was suggested I write a piece about it, explaining what it symbolised, as it was an abstract, and people kept asking what it was, and what this and that represented, and we had to keep doing the artistic bit and explaining. So I said I'd write an explanation notice and bring it in on Saturday, so we could stick it on the exhibit.

Then Saturday morning I heard the sad news that it had been brutally destroyed by council workmen on the orders of management, after it had been taken out of storage. I was downright astonished, it was cultural fascism. They ask us to participate in these events which half-wreck the market, and then they deliberately destroy our efforts, presumably because they don't like them. Perhaps they thought we were taking the Michael; as if our traders would ever do such a thing!

People got a lot of fun and mutual participation in putting that work together, and lots of people passing by stopped to discuss it. I spent about an hour writing, putting together what it was about. Photographers took pictures of it. Then someone ordered it to be destroyed. There must be some on the local council who think they're in Nazi Germany."

....................................................
BuiltWithNOF

Trader-led Intervention on the Blink Arts Festival.

“Spirit of the Market”

Here, in this exhibit created by the Northampton Market Traders, we have an unpretentious abstract somewhat after the neo-conceptual style, based physically upon a very real, everyday market object.

The base, a twice-broken and partially-repaired trestle, indicates powerfully the poor quality of some of the basic hired materials with which market traders have to work, and the partial repair with orange tape serves to show the political origins of this policy which leads to neglect.

Two strong triangular orange forms enclose the structure, representing the rigid local council regulations under which the market is run. Within this rigidity, on the trestle itself, we have a strong interwoven background of blue ribbons, serving to stress the solid conservatism and traditionalism of many traders, while the white ribbons bursting out all over the structure express the marketing flair and enthusiasm manifest throughout the trading community.
However, it will be observed that many of these bold expressive white ribbons are severely constrained within a growing network of orange ones, representing the strong constraints placed by the council upon various aspects of entrepreneurial market trading.

Two English flags, rampant, and a Churchillian dog, complete and decorate the structure, expressing the essential Englishness and patriotism at the core of the market; interestingly composed, as it is, of traders of many races from all corners of the globe.
Blink Arts 8Aweb

The original market traders’ exhibit, above, and left, a guide to the abstract.

Here below we show the abstract art exhibit by Laura Ellen Bacon. The work is made of steel rod and blue ribbons.

 

More Shopping Details:

Here onsite you will find details of the wide range of goods sold at Northampton Market, with full contact details of traders. You will also find details of some traders who have ceased to trade on the market, but have kept their contact details available so you can still order goods. Where traders have websites, links to these are also given so you can browse and order online.

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Blink Arts 7Aweb

Unnamed steel & blue ribbon sculpture by the artist Laura Ellen Bacon

Unlike the pictures in a local paper which gave a rather misleading impression of the actual size of the sculpture, the one above gives an accurate comparison with the people walking past. It is not a huge structure, and it is difficult to see why twenty stalls had to be removed, when only ten would have been quite sufficient.

 More pictures of the sculpture, and comments from passers-by, can be found here: Sculpture on the Square
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