FREEFORM ARTS TRUST

MAKING MARKS & FIDDLE WOOD
STANDING STONE

This monumental standing stone is at the meeting point of several pathways in an area of surviving ancient woodland, at the centre of an urban housing estate in North Norwich. Our brief was to create artwork encouraging community interest, expression and pride - inspiring the community, involving them in the creative process and generating enthusiasm and interest in the improvements to the neglected wood.

We wanted to create a piece which both connected with the past - hence the standing stone - and established 'new' history. Local people aged 3-80+ created the designs for the carved images and text in our facilitated workshops, writing poems and making printed banners with their designs - celebrating the wood and their experience of it. We wove a selection of these into our design. To follow it, one goes on a journey around the stone.

The designs and text were all hand-carved in Kilkenny Limestone, chosen not only for its inherent beauty but also for its hardness - which makes painted graffiti easier to clean off. Kilkenny Limestone polishes to a lustrous black as it weathers, becoming silvery and taking on the nature of ancient stones.

WHAT HAS BEEN SAID:
"I have just brought the girls back from school and they asked to see the standing stone again. One of their friends walked through the woods & was telling them he always hugs it before he looks at it. When we arrived they surrounded the stone & spent a few minutes being quiet feeling it's texture & looking at the designs & words. Then walked around it with their eyes closed & hands feeling it."

LOCAL RESIDENT (TO A COMMUNITY WORKER)
FIDDLEWOOD, NORWICH

"Free Form would like to express its profound thanks to Making Marks for their highly professional attitude to the programme of work and the quality of artwork and involvement of the local community"

ANDY NEWMAN. SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER
FREE FORM ARTS TRUST