PLANS for a large sculpture in a residential area of Andover have been submitted to the borough council.

Following consultation with residents and community groups, artist Svetlana Kondakova has lodged an application to erect the sculpture on community land on Locksbridge Road, by Picket Piece Sports Ground.

The sculpture would be four metres long, 2.1 metres wide and 1.32 metres tall above ground level, and would have a variety of children’s drawings and historic maps of the area engraved upon it.

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In 2021 TVBC advertised a commission for an artist to create a bespoke artwork for the development site. A selection panel comprising of TVBC Arts Officer, community development officer, local residents and councillors shortlisted and interviewed a number of artists. Svetlana Kondakova was chosen to undertake the commission.

The resulting design is for a dormouse made of aluminium, reinforced with fibreglass and steel supports on the inside, with weatherproof paint.

Children’s artworks, recreated by layering two sheets of aluminium, will be indented in the sculpture’s surface. Maps of Picket Piece from 1897, 1958 and 2022 are to be engraved into the aluminium surface and accentuated with black paint.

It comes after residents of Picket Piece were left devastated earlier this year after the borough council gave the green light to plans for 16 new homes in space promised as a junior sports pitch.

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The land was earmarked for a leisure space at the time of the development of Picket Piece’s Locksbridge Park, however developers say that it was never called upon to be used as such, with environmental mitigation used elsewhere instead.

The plans for the sculpture will now be considered by the TVBC planning committee. To view the application in full, visit view-applications.testvalley.gov.uk and use reference 22/00925/FULLN.

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