Elizabeth Woodward explains how central MK is being temporarily transformed in August by a public art project that focuses on a greener future…

With summer well and truly upon us, what better time is there to look to the great outdoors for creative inspiration, with an exciting public art project popping up in Milton Keynes.

This month, Station Square in central Milton Keynes is being transformed by a temporary public art project.

Following a competition launched last year by Milton Keynes Council and Milton Keynes Development Partnership, Hayatsu Architects won a £100,000 budget to transform the space.

Their design focuses on the city's environmental ambitions for a greener future and its notable design history.

It features 50 trees in rows, referencing MK's iconic grid road system. Two wildflower lawns will create a beautiful first
impression for visitors arriving by train and a series of temporary installations by artist Tue Greenford will be on show.

As well as creating a 'gateway to the city' it is also going to be an exciting event space for the summer, with pop-up food and market stalls and an area for screenings.

Milton Keynes Council's Carole Baume said the project "is a very fitting opportunity to celebrate MK's unique heritage" as Station Square approaches its 40th anniversary.

This exciting transformation is a two-year project which marks the beginning of a larger goal to permanently enhance Station Square as a landmark of Milton Keynes.

Elsewhere in the local art scene, 'Nick Knight: Roses from my Garden' is now on at Waddesdon Manor's Coach House Gallery.

Knight is best known as a British Fashion Photographer and in this fascinating exhibition he experiments with the parameters of photography.

Roses from my Garden is a nod to still life paintings of the past, and draws from the rich history and symbolism of the rose; but it is also looking firmly to the future with Knight stating, "I have no need to mimic old paintings."

The large-scale, ethereal photographs appear to be paintings from a distance, but when you move closer Knight's techniques begin to reveal themselves.

A unique effect is created through digital brushstrokes and AI enhancement, which takes data from other rose imagery and fills in the gaps created when the original photograph is blown up to such a huge scale.

The effect is a captivating creation of "a new thing, a bit like photography, a bit like painting, but actually neither."

For more information on these events, visit:

www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/pressreleases/2021/jun/station-square-set-for-refresh-this-summer

waddesdon.org.uk/whats-on/nick-knight-roses/

This feature was published in the August/September 2021 issue of Celebrate:MK lifestyle magazine. Read the full magazine above or by clicking on this link.