Bangin’ the Drum

This artwork featured in the Hereford Sculpture Trail (2024). 

“The idea for this commission is to create a facsimile of the bass drum from The Pretenders drummer, Martin Chambers’ iconic black and white drum kit, a famous feature of live performances since the band’s initial success in the 1970’s.

This will be an eye catching and visually stimulating piece, both playful and slightly surreal in its new context, exhibiting a strong, simple graphic quality that will both harmonise with, and complement its surroundings.” – Mark Houghton

Bangin the Drum was commissioned by Hereford College of Arts in 2024 as part of a collaborative project between Hereford College of Arts, Meadow Arts and Herefordshire Council. It is one part of the Art + People + Place programme, commissioned in partnership with Studio Response as part of the £6 million Hereford City Centre Improvements (HCCI) project.

Location: 22 Widemarsh St, Hereford HR4 9EP

Image: Mark Houghton, Bangin’ the Drum, installation view, Hereford Sculpture Trail, Hereford, 2024. Image courtesy of Meadow Arts. 

 

About the artist

Mark Houghton

BorderLands exhibiting artist (15 May – 31 August 2026) and Hereford Sculpture Trail (2024).

In this sculpture Mark Haughton uses the fact that most people are remarkably comfortable in translating the 2 dimensional pictorial information on a map to the vastness of a 3 dimensional landscape, and vice versa, which constitutes an extreme form of abstraction.

Transmuting the map into another medium removes all legible information, so the map now becomes a pure object. With only the form remaining, it is no longer a tool. The familiar now feels unfamiliar as it hovers between figuration and abstraction.

The piece is primarily a monument to the futility of naming and claiming landmasses in the face of geological time and the oneness of land and sea. Given recent world political events, and global climatic concerns, the piece retains and extends its significance in an ever-changing geopolitical landscape.