Street Art England.

STREET ART ENGLAND

COPYRIGHT MARK ABEL 2017

PHOTOGRAPHY BY J.G.

INTRODUCTION

Great art can communicate before it is understood T.S. Eliot.

Art is important. It can stimulate, inspire, motivate or at the very least it can act as a talking point so it is a pity that for most of the last century the vast majority of it was hidden away in aloof museums and galleries.

Indeed, if it wasn't for an abundance of statues of monarchs, nobles, various war mongers with the odd philanthropist thrown in for good measure, there was precious little else to enjoy.

As the police would say. Move on, there's nothing to see here.

Luckily this sad state of affairs started to change towards the end of the century due to a combination of two separate occurrences.

Firstly, a sufficient length of time had passed since the closure and near death of the majority of Britain's traditional heavy industries for the regions concerned to don their rosy coloured glasses and brag about their heritage and even to recognise and celebrate the people that did these back- breaking jobs.

Fortunately this reminiscing happened to coincide with large amounts of National Lottery money becoming available for local councils to bid for This resulted in some 2000 works of art being installed across the country with many new artists and their novel designs and ideas being situated in public places.

CHAPTER 1

WHEN TOMMY MET GEORGE

In the old North East mining town of Seaham, on the small grass field -Terrace Green-just a few feet from the dramatic views from the cliff tops overlooking the North Sea coast line sits Eleven .0. One.

Or, as he is more commonly known to the local townsfolk, Tommy from the popular nickname given to British soldiers.

The steel statue’s official name refers to the first minute of peace after the armistice ending World War 1 on the 11th of November 1918 and portrays a weary soldier sitting on a trunk.

What can he possibly be thinking and feeling? Relief combined with sadness for his many lost comrades, a desperate longing to return home?

He may quite simply be wondering what the last four years had all been in aid of and what this war to end all wars had achieved.