It Grows Like a Strange Flower: Ben Judd
24 - 25 June
The River Don, Sheffield
Free & open to all
Bloc Projects is excited to announce a commission of new work by London-based artist Ben Judd. It Grows Like a Strange Flower will create a temporary, re-usable geodesic dome (the structure famously reinterpreted by Buckminster Fuller and the utopian community of Drop City in America) situated on a small island on the River Don in Sheffield.
With an emphasis on reusing found materials, the dome will be designed and constructed with the help of Sheffield-based architectural practice Studio Polpo. Carefully selected individuals from a diverse range of backgrounds will help construct the dome, and will then sleep there for the night of 24th June, eating a communal meal made from ingredients sourced from the river and its environs. The dome will be deconstructed the following day.
It Grows Like a Strange Flower will encourage and facilitate discussion around the subjects of community and the river. The use of Sheffield’s waterways has been in decline since their industrial heyday and they have been a site of urban neglect; however there is a renewed interest in them as important spaces within the city, and they are now cleaner and abundant in nature. The discussions will consider the importance of community within a large city and will facilitate meaningful exchanges between strangers. The project therefore aims to reconnect people both to each other and to the river.
This project will be carried out with the help of the River Stewardship Company, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the regeneration of Sheffield’s waterways, and with the full permission of the Environment Agency. It also has guidance from Kelham Island Community Alliance.
The event will take place from 9am Saturday 24th June – 5pm Sunday 25th June, on an island next to Drop Dead Clothing, 48 Rutland Road, Sheffield S3 8BD.
Images by Rhys Herbert