Blue Bell Hangar Project

  • <b><i>Image:</i></b> <i>Blue Bell Hangar</i>, an experimental sculpture by New British Art installed in the Blue Bell Hangar, St Athan former military airbase, Vale of Glamorgan, 2011 © New British Art

    Image: Blue Bell Hangar, an experimental sculpture by New British Art installed in the Blue Bell Hangar, St Athan former military airbase, Vale of Glamorgan, 2011 © New British Art

  • <b><i>Image:</i></b> Image of the 1906 flight of Alexander Graham Bell's experimental kite, The Cygnet © New British Art

    Image: Image of the 1906 flight of Alexander Graham Bell's experimental kite, The Cygnet © New British Art

  • <b><i>Image:</i></b> Attempt to fly <i>Blue Bell Hangar</i>, an experimental sculpture by New British Art at their base in Carmarthenshire, 2012 © New British Art

    Image: Attempt to fly Blue Bell Hangar, an experimental sculpture by New British Art at their base in Carmarthenshire, 2012 © New British Art

  • <b><i>Image:</i></b> <i>Blue Bell Hangar</i>, an experimental sculpture by New British Art installed in the Blue Bell Hangar, St Athan former military airbase, Vale of Glamorgan, 2011 © New British Art

    Image: Blue Bell Hangar, an experimental sculpture by New British Art installed in the Blue Bell Hangar, St Athan former military airbase, Vale of Glamorgan, 2011 © New British Art

  • <b><i>Image:</i></b> <i>Blue Bell Hangar</i>, an experimental sculpture by New British Art installed in the Blue Bell Hangar, St Athan former military airbase, Vale of Glamorgan, 2011 © New British Art

    Image: Blue Bell Hangar, an experimental sculpture by New British Art installed in the Blue Bell Hangar, St Athan former military airbase, Vale of Glamorgan, 2011 © New British Art

  • <b><i>Image:</i></b> <i>Blue Bell Hangar</i>, an experimental sculpture by New British Art installed in the Blue Bell Hangar, St Athan former military airbase, Vale of Glamorgan, 2011 © New British Art

    Image: Blue Bell Hangar, an experimental sculpture by New British Art installed in the Blue Bell Hangar, St Athan former military airbase, Vale of Glamorgan, 2011 © New British Art

  • <b><i>Image:</i></b> <i>Blue Bell Hangar</i>, an experimental sculpture by New British Art installed in the Blue Bell Hangar, St Athan former military airbase, Vale of Glamorgan, 2011 © New British Art

    Image: Blue Bell Hangar, an experimental sculpture by New British Art installed in the Blue Bell Hangar, St Athan former military airbase, Vale of Glamorgan, 2011 © New British Art

  • <b><i>Image:</i></b> <i>Blue Bell Hangar</i>, an experimental sculpture by New British Art installed in the Blue Bell Hangar, St Athan former military airbase, Vale of Glamorgan, 2011 © New British Art

    Image: Blue Bell Hangar, an experimental sculpture by New British Art installed in the Blue Bell Hangar, St Athan former military airbase, Vale of Glamorgan, 2011 © New British Art

  • <b><i>Image:</i></b> Constructing a replica of Alexander Graham Bell's experimental kite, The Cygnet, for <i>Blue Bell Hangar</i>, an experimental sculpture by New British Art, 2011 © New British Art

    Image: Constructing a replica of Alexander Graham Bell's experimental kite, The Cygnet, for Blue Bell Hangar, an experimental sculpture by New British Art, 2011 © New British Art

  • <b><i>Image:</i></b> Constructing a replica of Alexander Graham Bell's experimental kite, The Cygnet, for <i>Blue Bell Hangar</i>, an experimental sculpture by New British Art, 2011 © New British Art

    Image: Constructing a replica of Alexander Graham Bell's experimental kite, The Cygnet, for Blue Bell Hangar, an experimental sculpture by New British Art, 2011 © New British Art

  • <b><i>Image:</i></b> Attempt to fly <i>Blue Bell Hangar</i>, an experimental sculpture by New British Art at their base in Carmarthenshire, 2012 © New British Art

    Image: Attempt to fly Blue Bell Hangar, an experimental sculpture by New British Art at their base in Carmarthenshire, 2012 © New British Art



Context:

New British Art Group (NBAG) is made up of early career and more established fine art practitioners working across the range of disciplines and has grown from an informal meeting of artists over a number of years in Cardiff. The group was formalised as an artist-led organisation in 2009 with the aim of collaborating on projects that would not necessarily be possible for an individual artist to undertake.  Blue Bell Hangar is one such project, made possible by funding from Stiwdio Safle, a programme run by Safle (the former national organisation for public art in Wales) on behalf of the Arts Council of Wales.



What Addo Did:

Addo provided project management and curatorial support to New British Art on behalf of the Arts Council of Wales, including:

  • Liaising between the Arts Council of Wales and New British Art
  • Providing advise and support as needed to New British Art
  • Processing invoices
  • Monitoring the progress and schedule of the project
  • Providing regular project reports to the Arts Council of Wales
  • Publishing New British Art’s publication that documented the project and was part of the work in its own right



Outcomes & Legacy:

For the Blue Bell Hangar Project, the group created a sculpture and a series of outcomes, reflections and events around a celebrated experimental kite called The Cygnet, made by Alexander Graham Bell at the turn of the 20th Century.  Bell’s kite was constructed as a vehicle for experimentation into flight and the principles of lift. Made up of a thinly cut, spruce dowel tetrahedral skeleton, carefully engineered steel connectors and a silk cloth covering, the kite flew successfully in 1906. This was later developed further into the wing of an aircraft capable of providing enough lift to raise two adult men into the air. The kite was made and flown at a moment in history when mechanical and scientific experimentation was producing a new world aesthetic: functional form was infiltrating the visual arts and modernism was seeded. Bell’s Cygnet resembles a modernist sculpture.