ANOTHER PLACE LIKE HOME

By Phil Montgomery

‘Children have a way of looking at things that adults lose. We lose so much as we grow up, you know, looking at things through the eyes of a child — that’s something special.’

“Wistful contemplation of the sea.” “Council bullied into buying scrap.” Antony Gormley’s Another Place provokes diverse opinion. So what is the value of public art in Sefton?

Through the fictionalised narrative of a pirate radio station, manned by a local with serious spleen against the Iron Men, Phil Montgomery looks for answers.

We follow pupils from Forefield Junior School, in Crosby, who undertook a project to make a musical composition inspired by Another Place. As the Iron Men arrived on Crosby Beach before the pupils were even born, they offer a unique perspective on the artwork and how we can interact with it. They also discuss how they might feel if they had never met the Iron Men — if, indeed, they had moved on to ‘another place’ as originally planned.

We also canvassed the Internet’s views on the installation — which, in some respects, marks quite a contrast with the children’s experiences.

Meanwhile, at the radio station, another drama is unfolding…

To capture the raw nature of a pirate station, the final version of this piece was recorded by broadcasting the finished track to an unused FM frequency, then re-recording it ‘as live’ through an actual radio set.

Needalaptop
Oldduffer
Paul
Pauline
Pedoja
Phillips
Rachel
Ralphy Rylance
Sandy
Simon
Stupot
Testforecho
The Edge
Tilly W
Whiplash