Shot
Histories in Suspension
Shot explores the relationship between industry, conflict and collective memory.
Created for the Moxy Hotel in Chester, the work responds directly to the historic Chester Shot Tower, which still stands opposite the building. For generations, molten lead was released from the top of the tower, falling through space before cooling and forming into spherical pellets used as ammunition. A process in which gravity transformed liquid material into objects intended for conflict.
Rather than referencing the tower itself, the installation focuses on the moment of transformation that took place within it.
Suspended across the hotel's central gathering space, the work takes the form of a gently declining cylinder that appears to move through the building like a stream of falling material frozen in time. Thousands of suspended elements create the impression of a lead shower suspended between movement and stillness, capturing an industrial process that once shaped the identity of the site.
The installation exists as a moment held in suspension.
Embedded throughout the work are cast lead soldiers and horses.
These miniature figures draw upon the language of childhood play, recalling the toy soldiers and cavalry figures that have occupied generations of bedrooms, classrooms and imagined battlefields. Familiar and nostalgic at first glance, they invite memories of storytelling, adventure and make-believe.
Yet many of the figures are damaged.
Limbs are absent. Bodies are fractured. Forms are incomplete.
The work deliberately introduces tension between the innocence of play and the realities of conflict. Objects traditionally associated with imagination become reminders of consequence. The romance of battle gives way to its physical and human cost.
Perspective plays a central role within the installation.
As visitors move through the foyer, the work shifts between abstraction and narrative. From one viewpoint it appears as a flowing industrial process; from another, a suspended landscape of fragmented figures. Viewed from the balcony above, the cylindrical form reveals a further reading, resembling the barrel of a gun aimed through the heart of the building.
The installation continually oscillates between object and metaphor.
Rainfall and ammunition.
Play and violence.
Industry and consequence.
At its core, Shot examines how histories become embedded within places and materials. The work draws a line between the industrial heritage of Chester, the objects produced within the Shot Tower and the wider human stories connected to their use.
It is a sculpture about transformation.
About the moment one thing becomes another.
About the distance between creation and consequence.
And about the histories that continue to echo through the places we inhabit.
Project Details
Year
2022
Location
Moxy Hotel, Chester, UK
Type
Permanent Interior Installation
Materials
Cast lead, steel, lighting elements
Themes
Industry • Conflict • Memory • Transformation • Perspective
Photography
Gunner Gu