The Boulder

On Thursday 14th August, Shoreditch Park saw the unveiling of The Boulder - 100 tonnes of solid granite - the latest addition to Hackney's artistic landscape.

The Boulder is an ambitious public realm sculpture project by artist John Frankland and marks the completion of the second phase of the regeneration of our own Shoreditch Park.

John Frankland decided to leave the rocks as they were found in the quarry, bearing the marks of the explosion that blasted them from the rock face. He intended that people should engage with the boulder in a direct and physical way through rock climbing, or ‘bouldering’. A keen and expereinced climber himself, Frankland considers physical contact with the rock as a way of energising or activating the work, as well as a way of playfully debunking the notion of those sculptures in park settings, which are often fenced off or prominently labelled as ‘not to be touched’.

During the Shoreditch Festival, from August 16th and 24th, climbing competitions and taster sessions have been organised by the Shoreditch Trust. Afterwards, these sessions will be followed by free climbing classes for local young people into the autumn.

Photographer and filmmaker Chris Dorley-Brown worked with John Frankland to record the epic feat of lifting, transporting and installing the boulder. The film also captures the reactions and views of the communities where the boulder was placed, and how their double function as objects to be climbed has been taken up by both amateur and experienced climbers. This will be shown at Peer’s gallery on Hoxton Street from Wednesday 3rd September to 11 October.

The project received a generous grant from Deutsche Bank’s Art and Regenertation Scheme, and further support from Hackney Council’s Recreation and Environment Action Plan.

Modern art on the Regent's Canal

Modern artist, Yuko Shiraishi, was invited by Peer and Shoreditch Trust to make a semi-permanent public work for Regent’s Canal in De Beauvoir, Hackney. Shiraishi brought her long-standing interest in the psychological, social and physical effects of colour to this multi-use urban environment.

Working exclusively in her studio throughout the 1980s and 90s, Shiraishi made abstract paintings comprised of primarily two fields of colour that constituted an intense dialogue with light, tonal balance and harmony within the canvas frame. In the late 90s, she began to incorporate the frame within the architecture by embedding the paintings into the wall so that the picture plane was synonymous with their display surface.

For Regent’s Canal, Shiraishi has devised a colour scheme for the 70 meter wall adjacent the Kingsland Basin and parallel to Orsman Road, where she has had a studio for over 20 years. Pedestrians, cyclists and canal-users can see the changing nature of the work as it reacts to sunshine, evening light, rain and cloud, as well as the effect its reflection will have on the canal itself.

Bus routes diverted as new Tube lines installed

Bus routes 30, 38, 56, 242, 277 & the 38 nightbus will be diverted while a new bridge is installed at Dalston Lane.

From Novemeber, one way eastbound only traffic from central London towards Hackney Central will operate on Dalston Lane, as the central section of the existing bridge is demolished and replaced with the new Tube service bridge. Westbound traffic towards Islington will be diverted onto Richmond Road via Queensbridge Road until January.

The final phase of works, from around January until May '09, 2 way traffic will be maintained, but with a reduced lane width.

Hackney finally joined the Tube network following a mamoth lobbying operation by Hackney's Mayor, Jules Pipe.

[Click on map for bigger image]

For more information contact Transport for London on 0800 587 2441 or email them at: overground@tfl.gov.uk