Eternity City

About

Developed during open workshops for residents led by the artist over the summer, Eternity City captures patterns, textures and shapes of the city, and creates ‘living slides’ from plants gathered from the city’s edgelands. Sapphire will project giant versions of these slides onto the windows of the iconic modernist building of the Old Bus Station. As the sun goes down the film is revealed: the footage projected directly on to live plants that decay throughout the duration of the installation. The film is built up of multi-layered loops perpetually shifting, evolving and growing. The soundtrack is composed by local musician Rob Shields, using manipulated sounds of cars and nature recorded in the city.

Eternity City was commissioned as part of the Groundwork Weekender - a three-day celebration and exploration of Milton Keynes’ heritage, landscape, architecture, people, sites and sounds and is curated by artist-collective Tracing the Pathway. Groundwork will run from 14th-16th September 2018.

The artist Sapphire Goss says:

My involvement in Milton Keynes stems from being brought up there and having family history in the area going back centuries.  

A significant part of this project will be focused on drawing in teenagers and young adults. As a former resident of Milton Keynes I felt there could be more inspirational activities and engagement with young people in the city to raise awareness, inspire ambition and to make sure all young people can engage with their local environment in a creative and meaningful way.

There is a brain drain of young people leaving the city, and I would hope to form part of an increased visibility and presence to arts and highlight the potential for investment in this area for the benefit of the city and its residents.