Together with tangents
“My sculpture titled ‘Together with Tangents’ is a response to form. The structure plays with six simple elements found in the gardens. The stake, the rope, the twist or spiral, the guy ropes that hold the form in a tension, the screw and the tassel. These few themes metamorphosed into an open structure of tension and release. I designed the metal stakes so that they would remain firmly rooted and hold ropes above the surface of the ground, forming parallel planes with the changing surface of the growing grass”
Cecile Elstein
Site Specific sculpture in Wimpole Hall Gardens in Cambridgeshire
Play Structure
In 1976, Cecile designed a pine play structure specifically for children with disabilities, which was erected in 1978. Her notebooks offer insight into the functional and formal intentions behind the design, as illustrated below:
Functional aims:
- To relate to the needs of the children in their environment
- To express protection and growth
- To increase awareness of shape, colour, texture
- To enhance imaginative play
- To foster numeral and geometrical interest
- To be used as a stage set for outside drama
- And a seating arrangement for watching games
- To accommodate the children as a ‘play tree house’
Formal aims:
- To be an architectural figuration which contains an open ended space within it
- Horizontal planes which make up diagonals and curves supported by interrelating verticals
- The form to be enhanced by light which would fall through it as well as over it
- The volume made more evident by the space within it
- The mass penetrated by light and space
Mandarah Project
The Mandarah 2 Project was a collaboration with constructivist artist Terry Scales and was a 3D plastic inflatable environment consisting of soft, geometric chambers each adorned with their own colourful and abstract compositions. Interlinked by vibrant corridors spanning 30 metres, it aimed at providing exciting optical experiences for the viewer in the self-contained modular environments. It utilised sunlight to provide the dynamic power of colour within the immersive experience of the structure and after the success of the initial Mandarah project, Cecile was awarded a bursary to develop a chamber within ‘The Temple Space’ for Mandarah 2. This was titled ‘Sunny Ladies’ and encompassed previous pieces of work (‘Meetings series’) which initially were a series of screenprints that were taken and adapted to form the plastic walls of her chamber. The project was another success and toured the country and its festivals for the next 2 years, going on to Arhus Festuge in Denmark in 1985 and was finally picked to represent the UK at the Singapore Arts Festival.
“It celebrates our communion with each other and with the sun” - Cecile Elstein
Sundial
Marie Louise Park, Didsbury
