http://www.festungguernsey.supanet.com/
/MP4 Bunker\
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
Festung Guernsey
The Group of people restoring and preserving Guernsey's bunkers.
http://www.festungguernsey.supanet.com/
http://www.festungguernsey.supanet.com/
Cement, Sand, Water
I've finally been able to begin working with concrete! Today I bought a bag of cement and sand as well as some basic equipment I will need (a large and small trowl, a bucket for water and a bucket for mixing). The bag that I bought is called Safe Mix/Soft Sand and Cement. It is a £6.26 bag with both cement and sand provided. This could save time if I move onto larger scale sculptures in the future as it will save me measuring roughly the correct amounts of sand and cement. Right now, all I am doing is playing around with different measurements and testing the limits of the material. but once I feel like I know what concrete is capable of then I will start moving onto making what I like to call 'proper' artworks.
Concrete German Bunkers
Before I left guernsey to come back to London I went around a few of the German bunkers from WWII. Although I have grown up around these structures I found the experience quite distressing and upsetting. Because these buildings have been around me my whole life I had never (until now) properly taken the time to think about what happened, I never made the link between me and those who suffered on my home island.
There really is something haunting about these great, grey blocks dotted around the island - they are a true reminder of something awful. However, do not feel as if they should not be here. They are one of the greatest living reminders of how to live our lives, and how to run a government. They represent the strength of the good, common people of the Channel Islands. They represent the strength of those Jews, Romanies, homosexuals, disabled, Slavs, Poles, Soviet PoW's and Jehovah's Witnesses who suffered and died because of this occupation. It was these people who built the bunkers as slave laborers, and you can almost feel the soul of those people as you interact with these incredible structures.
There really is something haunting about these great, grey blocks dotted around the island - they are a true reminder of something awful. However, do not feel as if they should not be here. They are one of the greatest living reminders of how to live our lives, and how to run a government. They represent the strength of the good, common people of the Channel Islands. They represent the strength of those Jews, Romanies, homosexuals, disabled, Slavs, Poles, Soviet PoW's and Jehovah's Witnesses who suffered and died because of this occupation. It was these people who built the bunkers as slave laborers, and you can almost feel the soul of those people as you interact with these incredible structures.
/Bunker at Cobo Bay\
/The interior of another bunker on Cobo\
/A preserved bunker at Vason Bay\
/Napolionic fortress meets German bunker\
/A shape that I found intriguing\
/Another fascinating form\
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