The Masterplan

Spurred by a public art commission for the British resort town of Weston super Mare, part of a national initiative to promote seaside revitalization, artist Stephen Hodge looks at the very notion of the master plan. Working with artistic collective Wrights & Sites, Hodge has put together a publication of reconnaissance material collected while researching their permanent commission Everything you need to build a town is here. In particular, the unpublished transcript of a 1947 meeting for post war redevelopment acts as a catalyst for a visual exploration of regeneration from the fantastic acropolis of Portmeirion to SimCity. Hodge annotates this transcript with historical and contemporary newspaper cuttings, found material and photographs, and concludes with conversation exploring regeneration as an inspiration and hindrance for contemporary artists.