The installation of alphabet

The Council are working with The Line, East London’s public art trail, on a new sculpture for Beckton Parks.

A sculptural installation called alphabet, created by the artist Albert Potrony, is made up of a series of colourful abstract forms arranged in different configurations, it invites interaction and intergenerational play and creates a space of joy, fun, and boundless freedom for everyone.

The alphabet sculpture will be installed later this year and located near to the newly refurbished playground and forthcoming multipurpose games area, building on the delivery of new play spaces within the park and delivering on the aims of the Beckton Parks Masterplan to provide multifaceted play spaces that include both formal and informal opportunities for people of all ages to play, exercise and socialise.

There is no set way to interact with alphabet. The various elements provide undirected opportunities for any age group to playfully engage within the space, placing the imagination of the users at the centre of the experience. This undirected approach allows for creativity, self-expression and independence.

The installation is made up of the following elements:

- A sculptural multipurpose ‘bench’ – on which to stop, relax, and absorb the local environment as well as offering multiple undirected play opportunities through its different levels, ramps, and steps.

- Four low steel sculptural elements, a single shape in different orientations featuring circular apertures to look through and to invent new games with.

- A steel arch created by combining two larger elements of the same shape.

- Interactive overlapping tubular steel sculptural elements that create a drawing in the sky when viewed from the bench.

- A floor game – an abstract ‘boardgame’ with no rules, to encourage as many interpretations and play possibilities as the imagination allows.

alphabet evolved through a series of artist-led workshops with local people, families and schools in Newham. It is inspired by the local environment: a combination of natural and architectural forms. Older buildings sit next to the new and currently being constructed, against the backdrop of the docks’ industrial architecture.

The nearby waterways – the River Thames, River Lea, the docks – and their fluidity, movement and continual change are referenced. Preserved archaeological features and artefacts from all periods that become visible at low tide, including finds from construction works nearby, are hinted at in alphabet.

The blue colour on the forms references the 19th century manufacture of pigment and chemicals in Newham, in part based on the supply of byproducts such as sulphur and ammonia from the Gas Light and Coke Company's works. Whilst the Corten metal finish speaks to the area’s industrial legacy, including the Thames Ironworks shipyards.