A Never Ending Story Of The People (Thrapston) was an artwork by Broken City Lab in 2013, which was part of our Public.Art series, an LED sign visible 24 hours a day in the window at 33 High Street, Thrapston. The sign mirrored the device used by the London Stock Exchange, but instead of the commercial value of things, it explored the meaning and value of art and interaction in public spaces.
Broken City Lab are an artist-led interdisciplinary creative research collective and non-profit organisation working to explore and unfold curiosities around locality, infrastructures, and creative practice leading towards civic change. Much of their activity has been focused on Windsor, Ontario, a once-collapsing, now gradually stabilising post-industrial city at the edge of Canada.
This commission saw Fermynwoods realise a long held ambition to work with Broken City Lab who we felt had an affinity with our programme. Likewise their Research Director had stated,
“I really like the programming at Fermynwoods – really excellent work – text, walking, public space, really wish we were in the area to see some of it!”
Justin A. Langlois
An earlier Broken City Lab work … and then the city: brand new endings for cities telling the same old stories, was a publication exploring the cyclical nature of cities. Hope, failure, bad decisions, nostalgia, construction, sprawl, gentrification, isolation, devotion, and so on. There was no particular reference point in time for each page within Windsor or in terms of a history of the idea of the North American city.
We were interested in how this cyclical process might apply to Thrapston, an English market town, in Northamptonshire, a county with no cities. The First Nations and Native Americans first inhabited Windsor, Ontario, however the first European settlement was established in 1749. Thrapston by contrast was granted a market charter in 1205, having been listed in the Domesday Book in 1086 as Trapestone.
After studying archival photos of Thrapston whilst a neighbouring town to Windsor lost its major employer, leaving hundreds of people out of work, Broken City Lab proposed that the focus on this work need not be on the town or city as an idea, but on the people who are there.
The artwork that followed was 86 lines of text (in reference to Trapestone of 1086), which would play on a continuous loop in the window in Thrapston in 2013. Half invented stories that might apply to the people in the photos, or to people in another town or city perhaps anywhere in the world.
Since Fermynwoods vacated 33 High Street to move up the road to Thrapston House, the premises has been a tattoo parlour, and is currently Luke Williams Luxury Hair Design, who often have their own impressive window displays. Thrapston still has a Market Day, every Tuesday along the High Street, and a Farmers Market on the first Saturday of the month. Other businesses have come and gone and the cycle continues.
James Steventon
A NEVER-ENDING STORY OF THE PEOPLE (THRAPSTON)
…AT FIRST WE WANTED SOMETHING SIMPLE.
…AND THEN WE DREW A LINE IN THE SAND.
…AND THEN WE BUILT SOMETHING TOGETHER.
…AND THEN WE TRIED TO DO IT BETTER.
…AND THEN WE CAME APART.
…AND THEN WE KNEW IT COULDN’T STAY LIKE THIS FOREVER.
…AND THEN WE THOUGHT WE WERE DOING IT FOR ALL THE RIGHT REASONS.
…AND THEN WE FORGOT THE HISTORY OF THIS PLACE.
…AND THEN WE MOVED ON, AND LEFT IT ALONE.
…AND THEN WE RAN AWAY TOGETHER.
…AND THEN WE REACHED A PLATEAU.
…AND THEN WE REALIZED IT WASN’T FOREVER.
…AND THEN WE FOUND OUT THAT IT WAS POSSIBLE.
…AND THEN WE PULLED UP OURSELVES UP BY OUR BOOTS.
…AND THEN WE KNEW IT WAS SOMEBODY ELSE’S PROBLEM.
…AND THEN WE WERE DIVIDED.
…AND THEN WE WERE DISTRIBUTED.
…AND THEN WE MADE HISTORY.
…AND THEN WE WERE AT THE CENTRE.
…AND THEN WE KNEW THERE WAS SOMETHING SPECIAL ABOUT THIS PLACE.
…AND THEN WE LOST OURSELVES.
…AND THEN WE LOST TRACK OF IT.
…AND THEN WE FOUGHT FOR SOMETHING MORE.
…AND THEN WE KNEW IT HAD BEEN TRUE ALL ALONG.
…AND THEN WE GOT LOST IN THE DETAILS.
…AND THEN WE HAD TO FORGET AND FORGIVE.
…AND THEN WE WERE SURE WE KNEW WHAT MATTERED.
…AND THEN WE GOT STUCK IN A RUT.
…AND THEN WE FOUND VALUE IN THE SMALLEST GESTURE.
…AND THEN WE WERE ALWAYS REMEMBERED FOR SOMETHING QUITE BEAUTIFUL.
…AND THEN WE DREAMT OF THE THINGS WE WANTED TO FORGET.
…AND THEN WE AWOKE TO AN UNIMAGINABLE SURPRISE.
…AND THEN WE TOOK ACTION.
…AND THEN WE TRIPPED OURSELVES UP.
…AND THEN WE KNEW IT WAS US AGAINST THEM.
…AND THEN WE RECALLED WHEN THINGS WERE QUIETER.
…AND THEN WE LOOKED BACK ON THE GOOD OLD DAYS.
…AND THEN WE FORGOT THAT THERE WOULD INEVITABLY BE A TOMORROW.
…AND THEN WE BET IT ALL.
…AND THEN WE HAD TO STEP BACK.
…AND THEN HAD A MOMENT TO REFLECT.
…AND THEN WE KNEW WE HAD TO DO BETTER.
…AND THEN WE HOPED THERE WAS A REASON FOR IT.
…AND THEN WE MADE UP FOR OUR IMPATIENCE.
…AND THEN WE STUMBLED UPON A SECRET.
…AND THEN WE HAD TO ADMIT TO IT.
…AND THEN WE COMMITTED TO A GOOD CAUSE.
…AND THEN WE FAILED TO LIVE UP TO OUR PROMISES.
…AND THEN WE UNDERSTOOD FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER WHAT MELANCHOLY WAS.
…AND THEN WE THOUGHT WE VALUED HISTORY.
…AND THEN WE DEVELOPED MORE AND MORE AND MORE.
…AND THEN WE GREW AND GREW AND GREW.
…AND THEN WE SEEMED TO HAVE BEEN DISAPPOINTED.
…AND THEN WE WERE SOMEHOW SURPRISED.
…AND THEN WE KNEW IT HAD ALL BEEN FOR NOTHING.
…AND THEN WE STUCK IT OUT.
…AND THEN WE CAME TOGETHER AGAIN.
…AND THEN WE REALLY CAME TO UNDERSTAND RESILIENCE.
…AND THEN WE WENT TO THE MARKET.
…AND THEN WE SAW OUR OLD FRIENDS.
…AND THEN WE REMINISCED ABOUT THE WAY THINGS USED TO BE.
…AND THEN WE COULD LOCATE OURSELVES IN A MUCH GRANDER NARRATIVE.
…AND THEN WE COULD SEE OURSELVES IN OUR HEORES.
…AND THEN WE REALIZED OUR FOLLIES.
…AND THEN WE WERE STRONGER TOGETHER.
…AND THEN WE HAD TO STEP FURTHER APART.
…AND THEN WE MADE UP FOR LOST TIME.
…AND THEN WE CREATED A SPACE FOR THE THINGS WE HOLD MOST DEAR.
…AND THEN WE BELIEVED IN OURSELVES.
…AND THEN WE COULD DO SOMETHING IMPORTANT TOGETHER.
…AND THEN WE WERE IN THIS TOGETHER.
…AND THEN WE KNEW IT WAS CAUSE FOR A CELEBRATION.
…AND THEN WE GOT STUCK AND UNABLE TO MOVE.
…AND THEN WE WERE THE VICTIMS.
…AND THEN WE WERE ABSENT.
…AND THEN WE FOUND SOME COURAGE.
…AND THEN WE IMAGINED VICTORY.
…AND THEN WE UNDERSTOOD TIME AS A SERIES OF FLEETING MOMENTS.
…AND THEN WE WERE MOBILIZED.
…AND THEN WE OPENED OUR DOORS.
…AND THEN WE SAW THE LANDSCAPE, AND THE PASTURES, AND THE WATER.
…AND THEN WE FELT REALLY SMALL IN THE VAST WORLD AROUND US.
…AND THEN WE BEGAN TO REALISE OUR PLACE.
…AND THEN WE FELL IN LOVE AGAIN.
…AND THEN WE KNEW THERE WAS A HAPPY ENDING.
…AND THEN WE HAD TO DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN.
Look out for more Fermynwoods Friday posts each week looking back at some of our favourite projects.