‘Passers-by’ is 10m long and 1.5m high and is installed in a corridor in the new Health and Care Centre in central Greenock. It is made from 3.15mm galvanised, mild steel ‘line-wire’. Wire typically used to create fencing. It was soldered together using a butane torch and plumber’s solder. It was then hand-painted. There is an additional vinyl piece at the far end of the corridor.

The impetus for this work began with the photographs of Eugene Méhat. He was a French photographer who documented the architecture and streets of Greenock in the mid to late-sixties prior to a period of urban renewal. The research for this piece focused on the people who happened to be walking past when Méhat was taking his photographs – the passers-by. Around half of the figures represented are drawn from Méhat’s photographs and the other half are drawn from my own street photography. The work also includes five images of water in various states such as frost, waves, mist etc. These images were rendered as graphite line drawings and these drawings were then used as templates to create the ‘wire-works’.

This work uses the human figure to explore ideas associated with human action. The aim is to explore how we observe the actions of others.