A group of artists has taken to Eccles and Irlam train stations to spread awareness about climate change.
The artists, from Liverpool, have each taken a public transport spot to plaster in their own style of relevant art, each stop being chosen for their relevance to the local areas climate battle.
Eccles was chosen for its proximity to a vast number of green businesses around Manchester, according to the Sweat The Small Stuff website, as it allows for a community feel to the art as “effective change comes as a community”.
Another site for the art is in Irlam, as the Hamilton Davies Trust provided a home to further emphasise the community feel of the piece at Irlam Station.
The Metal Group, based in Edge Hill, started the project in January 2023, with community at the heart of the project. Having enlisted the help of artists Owen Rutland and Aly Thorburn, Metal started the information trail, leading them to the Friends of Eccles Station and Hamilton Davies Trust.
“We initially started with thinking about that history of the innovation and expansion of the railway and how that was also this moment of creativity that leads to environmental consequences.”, Stef Bradley of Metal said, “it is a big moment for coal and leads us in this direction of overconsumption and reliance on fossil fuels.
“We were really interested in sight specific installations.”
The desire to be positive and solution focused permeated the art work, with “Where Do We Go From Here?” being particularly focused on innovations and the communal aspect of making a change.
Irlam Station was chosen as a hub to display the entire ‘Sweat The Small Stuff’ project, including that based in Liverpool. Tony Prescott of the Hamilton Davies Trust provided a tour of Irlam Station alongside an in depth description of their involvement and opinion on the project.
Eccles, on the other hand, has a much smaller role, but still is a place for the art at the station. Mark Charnley from Friends of Eccles Station showed off the art and outlined their role in the project, as well as the station’s role for the surrounding area.
“We’re trying to form a community rail partnership, so that all the local friends groups along the railway can work together on different projects”, Charnley said.
“We’ve got a few different things on the station so we’ve got different art, this is quite bright, colourful, quite a big installation as well so it certainly adds a bit of colour to the station and hopefully the message about climate change will be passed on to people using the train.
“The seasons aren’t quite what they used to be when I was growing up.”
The 1830 line is a key motif for the piece as it is the longest running railway in the United Kingdom.
Rutland outlined the importance of the line to the artwork. He said: “We began with base research on the 1830 railway system and where that began.”
This cursory research would lead to visits to several green enterprises, which would be included in the art.
“Not being from Manchester, it really started with being in Liverpool and a lot of these even the ones by Edge Hill in Liverpool I didn’t really know about either and it just opened my eyes to go searching to find these places for other people to look at.
“I think what drew me to those businesses was personal, everyone uses delivery services and you don’t realise that there are these green enterprises that exist.”
The communal aspect of this project is what has driven this forward and while only time will tell if the piece succeeds in regards to climate awareness, it does seem to be doing the right things in terms of bringing a brand new community together.
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