Six students from across the year groups at Hereford College of Arts have created a collective response to Baroque Sprawl, the commissioned artwork by Laura White for No.1 Station Approach in 2024. The students showcased their artworks in an exhibition called Unruly Material.

Laura’s installation draws on the movement and theatricality of the Baroque, paying homage to Gian Lorenzo Bernini and his sculpture Apollo and Daphne, which was featured on the billboard at the Aylestone Hill end of the building. At the opposite end, an undulating metal frame carried Laura’s scaffolding sheeting, a material more familiar on construction sites than in sculpture. Through this everyday fabric, the drama of the Baroque is grounded in the textures of the city.

Taking Laura’s use of scaffolding fabric as their starting point, Julia Goldsmith, Emily Hedges, Elysia Hughes, Hannah Ingram, Maddie Johnson and Hazel Stewart-Deane spent two weeks exploring its qualities. Working both together and independently, they tested its strength, flexibility and surface, producing experimental outcomes shaped by ideas of materiality, play and construction.

Their works form a thoughtful dialogue with Baroque Sprawl, translating grandeur and movement into hands on investigation and shared making.

Commissioned by Meadow Arts and Hereford College of Arts in 2024, Baroque Sprawl was the third bold commission of public artwork for No.1 Station Approach. One of fifteen projects launched in the city thanks to the support of Stronger Hereford, that aims to make the city greener, fairer, creative, digital and more connected. With support from HM Government’s Towns Fund to help Hereford blossom into a richly creative, digital, connected and highly-skilled place to live, work, study, visit and invest.