“The Millennium Bench - an unraveling railway track adorned with local wildlife - perfectly symbolizes the site's journey from an industrial thoroughfare to a protected sanctuary for nature.”
The Millennium Bench (2002) is a visual bridge between the site’s industrial scars and its ecological recovery. Its design—an unraveling railway track—serves as a literal "undoing" of the industrial age, where the rigid steel of the past gives way to the organic forms of the present. The piece captures the site’s transition from a heavy-engineering rail embankment to a protected nature reserve.
The Rail Motif: The metal "tracks" that form the seat represent the late 19th-century railway construction that defined this landscape.
The Nature "Invasion": Adorning the bench are sculptures of local wildlife, symbolizing the species that reclaimed the land after the steam engines departed.
The Connection: By sitting on the track, the viewer becomes part of the "reclamation," resting where heavy industry once thundered.
