Supermarket Seats

Location - Sinfin District Centre outside of supermarket / Artist - Denis O'Connor

The supermarket seats at Sinfin were put in as part of the development of the new supermarket at the District Centre. They followed a formal Agreement (a Section 106 agreement under the Town and Country Planning Acts) between the developers and the Council to provide public artwork in relation to the development scheme - a 'percent for art'. They were completed in July 2002.

Made from stainless steel, the seats show quality of design, material and manufacture. They provide an example of how pieces of street furniture can serve their purpose and be artworks at the same time. Derby Station Railings are another example.

Before designing the seats, sculptor Denis O'Connor had worked with children from three schools in the Sinfin area on a community artwork project completed in March 1999. Funded through the government's Single Regeneration Budget, it involved artwork for three childrens play areas and a screen for an entrance from the main road to a housing area.

Denis is from Cork in Ireland. As well as being a sculptor who has worked locally, he is a Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at the University of Derby's School of Arts, Design and Technology.

Information about his work is to be found on the University's website. In an introduction,  Director of Art, Design and Technology Professor David Manley comments on Denis's public artworks from the period in which the seats were produced.

"The rhythms and symbols mark these sculptures out as very much part of that body of work which is definitely Denis O'Connor's - they couldn't be mistaken for another artist's work".

"There is a robust and original feel to these projects. O'Connor drives them on to a resolution early in the making process so that the freshness of the drawing comes through in the finished works", he says. These projects "have a narrative content which echoes O'Connor's studio and community works from the eighties and a strong sure footed sense of the decorative".

"The interplay of the curving screens with the laser cut elements of organic plant forms … creates a joyful and playful natural relationship with the surroundings. The open and expansive shapes echo those employed in Matisse's late collages".

The Derby Public Art Strategy sets the scene for future public artworks in the city.

For further information please contact the Built Environment Team:

Telephone 01332 255060  Minicom 01332 256666  Fax 01332 255989  e-mail urban.design@derby.gov.uk