Juliet's Proposal

Landguard Fort Proposal

The Gainsborough painting of Landguard Fort, became a starting point for this project. I lived in Felixstowe as a child between the ages of 8 and 11 and flew kites and walked on the sand dunes that Gainsborough had recorded in his landscape piece. Revisiting Landguard, I was immediately struck with how dominant the vast container port is next to the diminutive Fort and fragile, protected beauty of the dunes.

I decided to explore the relationship between the three elements of the Fort, Port and Painting. By considering the active role the port plays in the British economy, the reliance on goods manufactured elsewhere and the trading links that have been established between countries, I proposed to produce a piece of work which engaged with this process.

Gainsborough was commissioned to produce his painting of the Fort in xxx by Phillip Thickness, the then Governor of the Fort. His piece captures a moment in time, the Fort employed in defending the country from invasion, at the ready, sited on the mouth of the estuary. Today, the fort is redundant, an historical site of interest, tourist location, and at times, ghost hunter and re-enactor riddled. The port continues to develop on its door step.

I decided to commission my own version of the fort, via the internet and email, commissioning Gainsborough’s piece to be reproduced in China and shipped back to the UK. I will mark a designated spot within the dunes, as close a vantage point as possible, to where Gainsborough stood and painted, and invite visitors to the show to walk from the Fort to the location to produce their own painting. I will also invite the Felixstowe Artists who have a Gallery on the seafront to participate in painting that particular vantage point and possibly exhibiting their work in their own gallery at the same time.

While waiting for the arrival of this piece, I would collect my own impressions and memories of Felixstowe using a variety of methods including pinhole photography, digital photography, drawings and watercolour, recorded over a period of time. These images I would then reconfigure, cut, collage and reassemble to produce a series of twelve images. Inspired by the very positive calendar of Felixstowe I bought in the Tourist Information Office, I will arrange the pieces within a calendar format. I also intend to approach the Information Office to display work there parallel to the exhibition and creating a link between the town and the Fort.

Work Produced for Exhibition shall include:
1 commissioned painting from China of Gainsborough’s landscape painting.
Site marker and invitation to walk to Gainsborough’s vantage point and paint own landscape.
Series of 12 assembled/collaged pieces in a calendar format to be displayed in Tourist information office and/or possibly Fort.
Possible link exhibition of local artists’ landscape paintings produced from Gainsborough’s perspective.