‘Mercurial’ the Coventry Market Mermaid - making ‘Art out of junk’

The basic idea of creating a mermaid from re-cycled rubbish came to me when I was working with Mary Courtney on our ‘Moira’s Wet Fish Shop’ installation which was part of Coventry Artspace’s  2018 Spon Spun Festival.

This would have involved making the creature from litter picked along the length of the River Sherbourne between Moira's Wet Fish Shop in Spon End up to the point just past the Vignoles Bridge where it disappears under our City. It would therefore have been serving a useful, social purpose cleaning up the area and in addition making ‘Art out of junk’.

With time this idea moved down the river to the Coventry Market where Brian Sexton the Market Manager who had enjoyed our ‘Moira’s Wet Fish Shop’ wondered if I could create a similar installation with the Sitting Rooms of Culture group.

Still working with the idea of using re-cycled rubbish I decided to base this creature on ‘Merc’ and ‘Curial’ the Market mermaids but to combine these into an alien, universal  mermaid, ‘Mercurial’.  The creature was made using an old LED lightbulb, Christmas tree lights, expanded metal,  ‘Bubble-wrap’ / packaging materials, plastic forks, drinking straws etc from the Market.

‘Mercurial’ was completed just before our 18 month tenure in the Market ended earlier this year and was exhibited there very briefly in the gallery at the centre of the Market by the Roundabout.

The work is currently on display on the first floor of the LTB Showrooms Gallery where it can be viewed 12-4 pm most days.

Christopher Sidwell – Artist

July 2023