RESEARCH CENTRE
Uncovering new information and resources
The research centre was set up in collaboration with Portsmouth City Museum and Portsmouth Library and Historic Records Office to curate and display historical accounts of the Battle of Southsea. Aim to discover new historical information, provide essential context, and establish links to the present.
The research group have been meeting on a Saturday morning and Monday afternoon since the end of April, where they have uncovered fascinating stories, previously unknown information surrounding the battle.
The research will result in a pop-up exhibition at various locations across the city, in coordination with an exhibition at Portsmouth Museum.
Documentary
The story told in video form
Trash Arts Films Productions have been hard at work create a fun and informative documentary shedding light on the Battle of Southsea, its origins, and its enduring legacy. The documentary will be available for free public viewing at Portsmouth City Museum.
The documentary premiere during the 150th anniversary event at the Barley Mow Public House function room, the original site of the painting.
Produced in Partnership with Trash Arts Films
Puppets
Large scale puppets with Splodge Design
Splodge Design will be making 4 large scale puppets with local schools and community groups. The puppets will represent people who were present at the Battle of Southsea from both sides. These puppets will be the highlight of a parade from the top of Castle Road to Southsea Common and will be an important part of the storytelling during the anniversary celebrations.
About Splodge Designs
Clare Jefferson and Paul Jones are the Directors of Splodge Designs. Clare has been a Community Artist since the completion of a Fine Art Degree in 2001. Within her degree she specialized in textiles and sculpture. She has a history of well organized, creative and successful projects with mixed age ranges and has become a regularly commissioned artist for community ventures with Hampshire County Council, Havant Borough Council and Portsmouth City Council. Splodge Designs has been involved in many different public art projects including the Palmerston Road Regeneration Project, designing and creating bronze rubbings and silk paintings with the community, ‘An Essence of Southsea’ public art commission and the Sea Britain Project with Lee on Solent Junior School and Pier House Residential Home.
Paul Jones is a qualified teacher and throughout his working career he has had a wide range of experience in working with the community and within special needs schools. As well as working as a structure and design artist, Paul has a background in Music Production, which he utilizes within certain creative music projects.
Historical Way Marker Memorial Coins
Commemorative coins for the 150th anniversary
To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Southsea, a set of four Historical Way Marker Coins, one for each day of the Battle of Southsea, at significant locations determined by the research team. These coins will serve as visual and interactive markers, providing a tangible connection to the events of the battle.
Local artist Pete Codling will be responsible for the design of the coins.
About Pete Codling
Born in Zambia in 1969, to a “very Irish mother and very English father”, Pete Codling lived in Cornwall, Scotland, and London before settling in Portsmouth, his dockyard hometown, a cultural melting pot, adding to the mixed heritage of his daughter, extended family, and friends.
His regular travels to Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa have given inspiration to his work and love of art, history, and culture. His broad portfolio work reflects the art, politics, and economy of the last four decades of the UK/British art scene. His art is now maturing into a coherent powerful body of work.
At sixteen he went straight to Portsmouth College of Art & Design (1986 -1991) and then to East London Polytechnic to complete his BA Hons in Fine Art in Drawing & Sculpture. From there to Wimbledon School of Art to study Site Specific Sculpture (1992 -93) and transferring back to Portsmouth to complete his master’s degree in 1994. He is a regular visiting lecturer to art schools and creative mentor to fellow artists.
He has had an established career as a sculptor and designer of public artworks, receiving commissions from Local Government funded regeneration projects throughout the UK. Using a variety of materials and scale, from the epic to the miniature, he has created award winning community projects commissioned to give local populations a sense of place, engagement, empowerment, and ownership.
A lifelong drawer, he relied upon drawing as a method of practical investigation and proposal for sculpture, using drawing as a tool of fabrication and understanding rather than a pictorial medium. But he has spent the last decade producing a large body of work on paper focused on narrative figurative drawing, inspired by artist residencies and his personal journey, in vocation as artist and storyteller. His work references the personal and poetic as well as political, environmental, and global issues.
Since 2010, Pete has dedicated himself to developing a portfolio of large-scale charcoal wall drawings, installation, and exhibitions. This award-winning body of work is gathering creative momentum and new audiences. He won The Chaiya Art Awards London in 2017 and 2020. And the London Art Biennale 2021. In 2023 he exhibited the Kinship Drawing in Southampton City Gallery in partnership with the National Portrait Gallery London.
Following on from this in early 2024 he exhibited at Art Capital in the Grand Palais Éphémère – Paris, where he won the Taylor Foundation Prix, for his Kinship drawing. He also presented at the international ‘Drawing Conversations’ symposiums and publication with the University of Huddersfield.
This summer 2024, he will be exhibiting at the Musa International Pavilion, during the 60th Venice Biennale. This solo exhibition in the heart of the city at Plazzo Pisani- Revedin, includes the award winning Kinship drawing and postscript works in the Pavilion theme ‘The Land of Silence’. (See News here and Instagram for updates)
He is also currently Artist in Residence at the Historic Dockyard of Portsmouth, a three-year project, funded by Arts Council England. He is creating a series of huge canvas ship sail charcoal drawings that can be seen in progress on this website or social media.
