Kilmarnock car park shows its true colours
April 18 2012
Foregate car park emerged as the unanimous winner of this hunt - resulting in its steel artwork, originally created by Jack F. Sloane back in the 1990s, being carted off to Highland Galvanizers Cumbernauld base for its colourful re-vamp
Previously the piece had sat largely unnoticed perfectly camouflaged as it was against a grey backdrop. Now it stands out as an eye-catching work in its own right to users of the neighbouring bus station and shopping centre.
Geoff Crowley, Managing Director of Highland, said: “This is exactly the kind of impression we hoped Brighten Scotland would make – there’s no need for towns to be grey and dreary, especially when we so often have weather to match.
“A bit of colour can make a real difference to our surroundings and when the process means no maintenance is required to keep structures looking bright and corrosion free, it should be a no-brainer really.”
Many locals probably never even saw the artwork despite walking underneath it for 20 years
The artwork has been given a jaunty yellow and blue update
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12 Comments
#1 Posted by dirige on 18 Apr 2012 at 15:56 PM
Wow, it really was impossible to read it before it was painted. Looks striking now.
#2 Posted by SAndals on 19 Apr 2012 at 08:33 AM
Art...I know what I like...
Hope the original artist was consulted.
Can't wait til folk start covering my buildings in mock stone panelling a few years down the line "to brighten them up".
Hope the original artist was consulted.
Can't wait til folk start covering my buildings in mock stone panelling a few years down the line "to brighten them up".
#3 Posted by Ian on 20 Apr 2012 at 06:43 AM
#2. ........your buildings ?
......im thinking not
If indeed the buildings do belong to you then im sure you will be able to stop them covering them with mock stone.
However i suspect you will have no say in what the building owners do with their buildings
......im thinking not
If indeed the buildings do belong to you then im sure you will be able to stop them covering them with mock stone.
However i suspect you will have no say in what the building owners do with their buildings
#4 Posted by dirige on 20 Apr 2012 at 08:48 AM
Maybe StAlandals is referring to his garden shed?
#5 Posted by urbanrealm on 20 Apr 2012 at 09:00 AM
Hi Sandals - The organisers did try to track down the original artist, but neither they nor the college in which he formerly taught were able to locate him.
#6 Posted by SAndals on 20 Apr 2012 at 09:54 AM
For the record, my shed is a triumph of functional form, a bespoke design answering site specific constraints and an exercise in simple aesthetics and materialty which, while appropriate, contrasts with the surrounding context. Inside, it's a f*ckin mess tho.
#7 Posted by Jimbo on 20 Apr 2012 at 16:11 PM
Shame they couldn't have made it blue and white stripes after Kilmarnock won the League Cup recently... 'mon the Killie!!!
#8 Posted by Pat on 20 Apr 2012 at 20:50 PM
It's one of those Wayne Hemingway sheds then?
#9 Posted by RGraham on 23 Apr 2012 at 18:12 PM
Not an improvement in my opinion. Whats wrong with Grey? Think There are other areas in Kilmarnock that could be brightened up. I am sure this will only confuse the poor drunk waiting at the taxi rank of a Saturday night.
#10 Posted by Big Licks on 2 Jul 2012 at 22:22 PM
I'm sure this looked great when new, but alum does go dull grey over time and this was lost against it's background. This is a superb artwork and deserves to be seen. This is just one of many streetwork improvements Killie has done in the last year, all of which are brightening the gloom of a town struggling to stay alive whilst historic works are closing all around us. Well done Killie.
#11 Posted by Jack Sloan on 6 Jan 2021 at 23:27 PM
Although claimed, I fear no great effort was made to trace the sculptor of this work before this was done.
#12 Posted by Jack Sloan on 7 Jan 2021 at 03:38 AM
Created on a limited budget, this quadriga added to the side of a multi-story car park was a cheeky take on ‘horsepower’. The square below had also once been the town’s horse market and sliding gates below the sculpture also refer to that. At the time the work was created, the Berlin Wall had just fallen and I was thinking of the sculptures that top the Brandenburg Gate and celebrating Scotland's links with Europe. Perhaps remarkably in realising this, when the sculptures were polychromed the colours of the EU flag were used and even the semicircle of starts were picked out in gold.
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