BENCH

Back in September, I painted a haiku onto the slats of a city centre bench, for BENCH, a project run by Solent University’s Solent Showcase Gallery with support from GO! Southampton. Those slats have now been reassembled back into a bench and the finished piece is now in Southampton’s city centre, installed on Above Bar.

The finished piece reads:

Sit here for a while,

Think of those who you have loved,

And bask in the glow.

I wrote the following about the “haiku bench” for the project’s website:

The bench I've painted invites the sitter to think about their loved ones. When considering this project, I thought of memorial benches that are installed in dedication to people who have died. I wanted to create a bench that could act as a universal memorial.

It's not just to remember the dead, but also the living. There's no reason why you couldn't use the bench to think fondly about the person who's sat on it next to you. It's for the sitter to decide who to think about at that moment.

I have written a haiku on the bench. This three-line poetry form lends itself well to the three-slatted back of the bench. The text is hand-written in a custom style inspired by the seriffed styles carved or painted onto memorial plaques.

Primarily, I work as a writer, so to have the opportunity to express myself in this tangible, public medium has been very exciting. As a Southampton resident since 2006, I feel very proud to think that something I have created might help brighten up the day of visitors to the city, or fellow Sotonians.

The other artists who contributed to the project are Don John, Professor Peter Lloyd, Sian Storey, Clarke Reynolds, Charlotte Connelly, Nathan Evans, Wendy Hall, Sharon Hannah, Jonny Hannah, Kev Munday, Jojo Lewis, Jon Oliver, and Ciro.

You can look at photos of the other benches via the links in this post, but the best way to experience them, in my humble opinion, is to go for a stroll through Southampton and sit down at each bench you find.