Buttermere Close, Southampton

‘a space’ were asked to look to source an artist to work with a project team to develop, produce and install the public artwork in the Millbrook area of Southampton.

The development delivered 28 new homes, comprising of 7 houses and 21 flats. The artwork was to contribute to the new development through creating a distinctive and site-specific piece of public art to enhance the developments communal spaces.

The artist selected – south coast based illustrator and designer, Jacqueline Seifert, designed a series of tiled murals that successfully filled the brief. They take inspiration from the story of Mary Robinson, known as ‘the beauty of Buttermere’. Who was described in 1792 as one of the ‘tourist attractions’ of Buttermere in the Lake District, that this residential street is named after. Mary’s admirers included the poet William Wordsworth who wrote an Ode to Mary in book VII of his famous poem ‘The Prelude’.

Mary’s legendary beauty, the natural landscape of the Lake District and Alfred Wainwright’s Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells informed the overall design of the murals which Jacqueline has turned into a montage of photographs and found illustration.