
Talking Points
Public Art Commission
Nestled in Purley, the Grovelands Road site, formerly home to two family dwellings, has been transformed into a development of 44 modern flats, located across three separate buildings.
Four Property Group appointed FrancisKnight, to fulfil a public art condition for the development and commissioned artist Rona Smith to create the public art work.
Rona’s practice lies in sculpture and installation, drawing her interest from heritage architecture, period design and sacred geometry to create works which reference to the history of their locations and the purpose of the buildings they inhabit.
Her proposal for Groveland’s Road drew inspiration from the Purley Telephone Exchange, located in Brighton Road, 200m away from the development site. Her design was influenced by the criss-crossing network of cables formed from a telephone switchboard, achieving variation and depth in the colour and relief pattern work.. The public artworks were designed to represent the act of connecting points at the exchange desk while celebrating the connection of family and friends through conversation, paying homage to the rich legacy of the Purley exchange.
As part of the community engagement for this commission, FrancisKnight and Rona Smith hosted a workshop entitled “An Introduction to Public Realm Art” to artists based at Turf Projects, an artist studio in Croydon. The workshop explored how to find opportunities, craft impactful proposals, manage project requirements, and navigate the nuances of working with fabricators, with an emphasis on how an artist’s practice can be adapted for the public realm. As part of the engagement artist Lucy Grainge was selected by Rona to take part in a mentoring opportunity which saw Lucy work with Rona on the install of the artwork at Grovelands Road.