MICHAEL FAIRFAX

PUBLIC ARTIST, SCULPTOR, DESIGNER

West Dorset District Council
Commissioned Public Artist Michael Fairfax
To enhance the paving scheme at The Mound West Bay.

Michael worked closely with Martin Peacock Senior landscape architect for West Dorset DC and worked up a paving scheme to incorporate,
Words, stone carvings, bronzes and coloured brickwork to imbue the piece with a sense of the local history and Geology of the area.

Through a selection process Michael commissioned the local poet Paul Hyland to create words for the central harbour motif.
The poem reads:

ASKER SWELLS BRIT - TIDES WANE & WAX HEMP - ROPE TETHERS - SEAFARER TO SAFE HARBOUR - SEABED TO POLE STAR -
CRAFT CRADLED BETWEEN PIERS FISHERMEN DISEMBARK - DISGORGE THEIR NETS' CATCH

I have created a series of bronze setts with images relating to the crafts of West Bay and of course fossils although not the way one would expect.

I commissioned Nick Durnan to carve the chains on the stone of the central motif; the stone with a natural ripple alludes to the sand when the tide is low. The chains relate to those that hold the boats in place.

Michael Fairfax 2011