Coventry Towers
75/70: The Coventry Dresden Towers, Lithograph over Monoprint, 20 prints each 60 x 120 cms, VE 5, 2015
75/70: The Coventry Dresden Towers were made in response to the cathedrals interest in the Dresden Project. Recognising the exhibition was not appropriate to the cathedral space, I embarked on a site-specific installation to reflect the scale and significance of the cathedral and address the subject matter of the 75th anniversary of the bombing and Coventry’s relationship with Dresden. The installation is the North choir Aisle adjacent to the High Altar, at 90 degrees to the window by Lawrence Lee, which has as its subject matter the building of the City of the New Jerusalem from the New Testament Book of Revelation 21. The subject of the installation is the twinned cities of Coventry and Dresden and the wider destruction of cities of Britain and Germany during World War II. It addresses the historical background of the cities; the bombing and destruction; reconstruction; and contemporary life in both cities, and references the close relationship between the two.
On either side of the images together with Coventry and Dresden at the top of each tower are the names of some of the 34 most bombed cities in Great Britain and Germany during World War II. The names are in no specific order and do not relate to the images which are solely concerned with Coventry and Dresden.
The installation consists of four freestanding wooden structures approx. 1.20m wide x 4.5 m high. Each of these ‘towers’ holds five panels of print, 120 x 60 cms, which are framed and glazed with non-reflective glass, The panels are separated by their frames to ‘read’ like the leading in the adjacent stained-glass windows.
Each Tower has a different subject matter and set of colours.
Tower 1 - Yellow down to greens: Life before the destruction. Images of buildings and icons from the old cities, some of which remain, others that are gone.
Tower 2 - Orange through red down to browns: War, with a focus on the war in the air.
Tower 3 - Silver through greys: Destruction.
Tower 4 - Cobalt through to Purple: Reconciliation and reconstruction. The new cities and the Cross of Nails. Other faith sites in both cities: mosque, temple, synagogue.
