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Burnley's Coat of Arms becomes work of art
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 - 16:19
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The heraldic coat of arms of Burnley Town has been recreated into a sculpture by artists Grennan & Sperandio.
The heraldic coat of arms of Burnley Town is being recreated using little-seen items from the collections at Towneley Hall plus everyday things found in the town itself.
The initiative, which is part of the year-long ‘Town/House’ project by international artists team Simon Grennan and Christopher Sperandio, sees recognisable elements of the town’s coat of arms replaced with unique items from the Hall.
Burnley’s two purple lions are substituted by two Victorian taxidermy lions heads and the famous ‘De Lacy knot’ of the De Lacy family is reproduced in local willow.
Artists Grennan and Sperandio have created the new version of the coat of arms as a temporary sculpture in Townelely Hall’s Burnley room, which displays aspects of the history of the town. The sculpture is number two in a series of seven new artworks, commissioned by Creativity Works, that bring together items from the collections and items found or made in Burnley.
Simon Grennan commented: "The Burnley coat of arms is one of those things that everyone knows exists, but which not many people look at very much. We’ve recreated it by making surprising substitutions from the collections and the town to encourage people to look again. The response so far has been surprise and humour as people recognise the elements when they come together. It’s not every day that a combination of a stuffed stork, a road traffic hazard triangle and a couple of ornamental garden bees come together and make any sense. As the coat of arms, they do!"
The sculpture is on display until 19 August, when it will be replaced by the third sculpture, which the artists are busy creating right now.
More information can be found at www.creativityworks.info or www.thespringprogramme.blogspot.com
Editors Notes:
1.Photo opportunities are available on request
2.Creativity Works is an initiative co-ordinated by the Arts and Cultural Officers of the six Pennine Lancashire districts, Arts Council England, Curious Minds, Lancashire County Council and Regenerate Pennine Lancashire
3.The ReVisit programme is a series of commissions by five national and international artists’ collaborations across Pennine Lancashire’s museums and galleries. The artists seek to throw new light on the venues beautiful and curious collections in order to bring the venues and their collections to a new audience. The Burnley work is funded by Arts Council England, Renaissance and Towneley Hall.
4.The commission with Towneley Hall will see Grennan and Sperandio create seven new sculptures which will be shown in 6 weeks cycles, the time table for this is shown below:
20 May - 01 July Piece 1
08 July - 19 Aug Piece 2
26 Aug - 07 Oct Piece
14 Oct - 25 Nov Piece 4
02 Dec - 13 Jan 2012 Piece 5
20 Jan - 09 March Piece 6
16 March - 04 May Piece 7
For more info on the work of Grennan & Sperandio see
For more information on the ReVisit campaign contact
Laura.rodgers@blackburn.gov.uk
07896 272045
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