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everythingwaswonderful and arewehappynow?
by Tim Noble and Sue Webster

At-Bristol undertook a major Public Art commissioning programme linking the public open spaces themed around reflection and exploration. The Public Art complements the rich architectural heritage of the site and extends the themes of Explore and the former Wildwalk by encouraging people to look at the World in a new way. By animating the public spaces the Public Art helps to create a unique urban space.

Following the theme of reflection and exploration, Tim Noble and Sue Webster’s art works sited in At-Bristol’s unique underground car park arouse the curiosity of the viewer, inviting them to look harder at something which emerges perhaps not quite as it first appears.

Made of stainless steel and carnival bulbs sequenced to shimmer continuously, these art works appears to be, from a distance, just a beautiful glow floating above the exit from At-Bristol’s car park to the lift area.  Both pieces comprise hand-written text with individual words running into one another, forcing the viewer to examine them closely, in order to realise that they are letters which say something, while enjoying the beauty of the overall effect that the art work creates.

For Noble and Webster, perhaps these words hint at a perfect moment.  Perhaps the viewer will pause to look at them on their way out of the car park, or they might not notice them until returning.  Optimism and curiosity are at the core of the art work, as well as the leap into the unknown that optimism  brings – what will the next step bring if everything was wonderful.  If it was wonderful, what’s next?  Are you happy now, and if so, why, and if not, why not? Noble and Webster’s interest in controlled environments – such as an underground car park – evokes parallels with Las Vegas and its human-made, timelessness, the subject of earlier work by Noble and Webster.  Light and power fuel these environments on many levels.

This is the first permanent commission of Tim Noble and Sue Webster’s work for the outdoors, extending the art gallery outside and increasing access to their work.  It also encourages the idea that car parks – and in particular, underground car parks – need not be threatening, dark or forbidding spaces.  At-Bristol’s car park is a superb space, reassuring, beautifully designed and easy to use – its art works also make it unusual and provocative.

Tim Noble (born Gloucestershire 1966) and Sue Webster (born Leicester 1967) had their first collaborative show normal">British Rubbish in 1996 to critical acclaim, and have since shot to National and International fame through numerous joint shows, events and projects (such as the BBC1 TV documentary normal">Living with the Enemy broadcast in September 1999). They have exhibited in New York, Salzburg, Paris, Milan, Buenos Aires and Denmark.