signsofanopencity: How Artist John Newling Forsaw A Kinder, More Generous Future….Opening The Way To Something New…

Featured Image: Artist of what’s below, beneath and above us, John Newling

There’s a relationship between the imagination and the future, what’s coming, that we dream, that we need to cherish.

I thought about this when I noticed a connection between the building work in progress by J Tomlinson and others in the refurbishment and development of Nottingham Castle (on the top of Castle Rock just now) which reopens in May 2020:

and  John Newling’s Physics of Place (1998) light sculpture

At the time, the wilfull imagination of the artist, John Newling,  was strapped  down by tabloid minimal thinking. It called The Shed of The Midlands by the Nottingham Post. The name was created in true Sun-like fashion without any kindness or generosity of thinking.

But, what if…we look at art, people and everyone and thing around us with new eyes, what if we realise that the place we call now, the place we call then is always unfolding, is always here…….thank you John Newling for your courage in crossing the boundaries between art and life and value.

‘A Liminal City by John Newling from In Certain Places on Vimeo.

And, just as relevant when we think about the repair, reuse, recycle process that we’re all trying to develop in manufacture, construction, retail and life generally, look at the innovation in  Carmody Groarke’s Hill House….where to protect Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Hill House they’ve grown a museum around it, a museum of work always in progress/process….Yay!