Belonging

Faifley and Duntocchar were once villages on the fringes of Cludebank but with industrialisation came expansion and they were soon swallowed up becoming areas of the town itself. Shipbuilding and sewing machines, Singer once made more sewing machines in Clydebank that the rest of their competitors world wide it was said with its own station the factory and headquarters was a major employer until closure in the 1980's the decline mirrored by that of the ship building industry. Like many post industrial areas there were social problems but nobody ever reported the positives, after all thats not good copy!

I had passed this sculpture often on my way back from meeting client si n Stirlingshire and decided to shoot it today, there is no information as to who the artist was and none of the locals I spoke to knew.

The Sense of Place project was initiated by the proprietors and tenants of Faifley now a large housing estate, who felt that there was nothing that identified entrance to the estate, as a result there was a feeling that there was no local identity for those living in the area. Local people of all ages and backgrounds were involved in the concept the primary aim to create a deeper understanding and awareness of their local heritage and to create a unique entrance feature for their area. The project was about fostering a neighbourhood spirit by looking at the relationships between the young people and the wider community.

So many of these large housing estates were branded as Ghettos dens of crime and violence, to be honest having worked within them this was rarely my experience, like everywhere there were a few families that had a lifestyle so chaotic that it often resulted in violence and often fuelled by drugs, alcohol and bravado for the most part people were just like me, ordinary hard working people living their life, often those with the least were the most generous and it reminded me of the title of a Kate Adie book, The Kindness of Strangers, people willing to give of their time and their effort to help their community and it was heart warming to see.

The sculpture comprises a mother and child, the child cooried in at the woman's skirts and the child looking up to the woman's face. I liked the way the light flowed through the wire figures creating an effect of form, almost human like, the light was really flat, the day having started out wet but remaining overcast.

I found this difficult to shoot but hope you like my attempt