CHARM

2010

Location: Lidl Finchfield Wolverhampton
Commissioner: Lidl UK. Gmbh
Stone: bronze-cast h. 1350mm x 600mm square
Casting foundry: Pangolin

Lidl were anxious that the artwork should be meaningful within the context of the village of Finchfield and reflect something of the sense of place.

Finchfield can be interpreted quite literally a field of finches. It is suggested that the area was one field, or several, common fields within the parish of Tettenhall. Finchfield is to be found in the old kingdom of Mercia, old English for Mierce, meaning - people of the boundaries.

As industry expanded communities developed on the rural west of Wolverhampton. This preferred location, made best use of the prevailing westerly winds to blow the smoke away. Tettenhall is also renowned for its pear orchards, the Tettenhall Dick Pear, that originated in Perton, (just up the road), and was grown all over the Black Country.
A small robust, general-purpose pear that was often used for
                                                perry making.

Goldfinches, also called stitch birds, have evolved to eat small seeds from the plants that grow on the boundary lands between open fields and woodlands. They prefer to build their neat nests in orchards and gardens, the lining strikingly white with thistle down or wool. They usually lay five eggs, that are white with brown speckles. This multiple is also common to the pear with its five petals, sepals and so on.

The artwork combines these visual references with text, the collective noun:

CHARM OF GOLDFINCHES

five forms in a white circle gather
neither yet bird nor pear
look out from the stone all about
neither yet basket nor nest
neither yet woven nor stitched
deep red, black white, and strong yellow