As they prepare to install large, concrete sculptures around the route of the Great North Run, we talk to Great North Run Culture commissioned artists Hope Stebbing and Oliver Perry about Onward Together As One and how it came to be...

GNRC: Tell us where the initial idea for Onward Together As One came from?

OP: The initial idea for Onward Together As One came with Hope and I looking at British typographer and graphic designer Margaret Calvert along with her colleague Jock Kinneir, who together designed Transport the typeface for the entire road system for Great Britain. Margaret Calvert also seemed poignant because of her role in designing the typeface for the Newcastle Metro system, Calvert. We felt that this was a strong basis to start from and looked at somehow creating a form of sculptural signage for the runners.

HS: The typeface we arrived at Apercu, which seemed to have a synergy in its definition:

aperçu

a comment or brief reference that makes an illuminating or entertaining point 

glance, glimpse 

insight, hint

We liked this definition; it seemed to us that the runners could apply their own meaning to the text - allowing them to take what they want from the language. We wanted to take this sense of community and belonging, which comes with participating in the Great North Run, and transfer it to the text pieces. We specifically used words that are open to interpretation in terms of their meaning, they are inclusive - reacting with and activating the personal history and memory of those who see them. Onward Together As One, when teamed with the Apercu references both the run and our fundamentally optimistic and utopian ideals as artists.

The words themselves have been inspired by political and regeneration slogans combining our individual practice.

GNRC: What has been the most challenging part of the artistic process so far? 

OP: One of the real challenges was working with the curing time of the concrete; some of the letters were quite hard to render having a large and awkward surface. We were very aware how quickly the concrete could dry.

GNRC: What do you hope those seeing the artwork will take from it as they run? 

OP: Just as the words are located in three separate locations we feel that the letters work not only as a phrase, Onward Together As One but also as three separate meaningful statements - Onward, Together and As One. As a singular runner you are not only an individual trying to reach a personal goal but part of a broader community bound by the Great North Run.

HS: The piece represents the individual and also their part in the whole.

GNRC: How important is the placement of the work? Did you have specific locations in mind beforehand? 

HS: We liked the idea of the sculptures acting as monuments within the landscape, helping the runners by spurring them on. We started thinking about specific locations when discussing our application. It just so happens that Oliver had signed up to participate in the Great North run that year too!

OP: When I was running the race all I was thinking about was locations for the work… as well as just trying to finish!

HS: Playing on the courses normal function, many of the roads would never ordinarily be used by pedestrians. We were interested with the ‘edge lands’, the in-between spaces, the verge, a roundabout, and the spaces that are used to direct and separate but lay unused.

GNRC: What will happen to the sculptures after the Great North Run? 

HS: We have been talking to Northumbria University about the possibility of reshowing the work but this isn’t confirmed yet.

OP: I think our volunteers want their initials!

GNRC: If you had to describe the work to someone in three words, what would they be? 

Colourful. Concrete. Letters.

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WHERE: You can see Onward Together As One around the route of the Great North Run all day on Sunday 13 September, click here for the specific locations of the sculptures.

Supported by Northumbria University, IdeasTap and S and B EPS Limited