With both Olympics and Paralympics concluded Golden Steps, our Teach-Yourself-To-Wind-Gold-Medals installation is due to be removed from the streets of Camden (a seven day extension means it will now be removed on 19th March). Olympian Steps is also due to be removed from Birmingham’s Handsworth and Aston Parks. Fortunately there remains the opportunity to encounter steps on the streets of Wellingborough where Northamptonshire County Council commissioned us to make a piece for Global Footprint.
In the hiatus between Olympic and Paralympic hysteria an intrepid team arrived with brushes and temporary paint in hand to install our most adventurous outdoor Steps project. Foot Steps is installed in seven locations around the town and attempts to render moments of local historical significance in re-enactable form.
We have slowly refined outdoor application techniques and moved on from the original basic metal stencils to bespoke vinyl ones that allow for much more detailed and ambitious graphics. The challenges remain significant, pavement surfaces a major variable and radically effect the quality of finish. Working outdoors we are vulnerable to rain, failing daylight and locals either being very friendly – and therefore distracting – of quite unfriendly and therefore distracting. The general verdict on the installation process of Foot Steps: “we got away with it”. Encouragingly the feedback from passers by during installation – beyond the man who threatened us with the police – was that the piece was great and livened up their streets.