Background to Trove
In 2019 we were commissioned by Hull City Council to develop new work for Hull Maritime, a £70m heritage-led project funded by Hull City Council and The National Lottery Heritage Fund. This project involved the transformation of six historic sites and the restoration of two iconic ships – the Spurn Lightship and The Arctic Corsair, to create one of the leading maritime experiences outside London.
Working as part of the wider team with lead consultants Purcell Architects, Southern Green Landscape Architects, exhibition designers Haley Sharpe Design and art consultant Hazel Colquhoun, we have been developing a body of work inspired by the maritime collection that gives a voice to the city’s maritime past, present and future.
Part of our process was to work with surveyors to undertake high-resolution scans of some of the artefacts held at the Hull Maritime Museum before they went into long-term storage in 2020. The data from these scans were used to create Trove – a body of work which includes three new films, a series of six sculptural stone waymarkers and five interpretation panels for the route adjacent to Queen’s Garden, connecting the Hull Maritime Museum and the North End Shipyard in Hull.
The Hull Maritime Waymarkers
The form of the six Hull Maritime Waymarkers is based on the form of the original dock bollards of Queen’s Dock, once the largest dock in the UK. This dock was later filled in the 1930’s to create Queen’s Garden and the original bollards can still be seen on the northern boundary of the site.
The carved marble top-stones of the way-markers were created from 3D laser scans of a selection of artefacts from the Maritime Museum’s collection which were modelled as if fossilized within fictional topographies inspired by Hull’s river-scapes. These 3D models were then CNC cut from Carrara marble and hand finished by StoneCIRCLE – one of the largest stonemasonry factories in England.
The artefacts that we selected include the octant from the Truelove, a ship’s bell from the Lord Lovat vessel, a figurehead from the Sirius, a ship’s wheel, a half hull model and a small ceramic fish container.
The fabrication of the waymarkers was undertaken by StoneCIRCLE working with Broadmead Topstone, who supplied the bases. The final work was installed on site by the main contractor CR Reynolds.
Interpretation Panels
Additional artwork developed from the scanned artefacts along with other 3D scans of spaces from around the city, are displayed on five interpretation panels situated along the Guildhall Road pedestrianised route. Some of these artefacts are also on display at the newly developed Hull Maritime Museum.
The data from these scans was also used to develop three new films for the Hull Maritime Project: Ship of Light at the Spurn Lightship Museum: Beyond Future Water, on show at the Hull Maritime Museum and Ship of Ice which will be on show at the North End Shipyard Visitor Centre (due to open in 2027).
Interpretation panel showing artwork developed from a 3D scan of a Right Whale skeleton from the Hull Maritime Museum Collection.
