Concrete Cows
Encyclopedia
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
are an iconic work of sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
, created in 1978 by Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
-born artist, Liz Leyh. There are three cows and three calves
Calf
Calves are the young of domestic cattle. Calves are reared to become adult cattle, or are slaughtered for their meat, called veal.-Terminology:...
, approximately half life size.
The Cows are constructed from scrap skinned with fibre glass reinforced concrete donated by a local builder.
Context
The artist was an "Artist in Residence" in the early days of Milton Keynes and part of her role was to lead community participation in art. The Cows was one of a number of pieces created during her stay. Other examples of her work here include "The Owl and The Pussy Cat" at Peartree Bridge and a concrete mural near the leisure centre at StantonburyStantonbury
Stantonbury is a district of Milton Keynes, ceremonial Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated at the northern edge, between Great Linford and Wolverton...
. They were originally constructed at Stacey Hill Farm near Wolverton
Wolverton
Wolverton is part of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England.Wolverton may also refer to:Places in England:*Wolverton, Dorset*Wolverton, Kent*Wolverton, Hampshire*Wolverton, Shropshire*Wolverton, WarwickshirePlaces in the United States:...
, where she had set up her studio. The base armature
Armature (sculpture)
In sculpture, an armature is a framework around which the sculpture is built. This framework provides structure and stability, especially when a plastic material such as wax or clay is being used as the medium...
s were metal, with chicken wire used to create the general shape, then stuffed with newspaper. The original colouring of the cows was achieved using dyes. Some cows were brown. It is only through the council
Milton Keynes (borough)
The Borough of Milton Keynes is a unitary authority and borough in south central England, at the northern tip of the South East England Region. For ceremonial purposes, it is in the county of Buckinghamshire...
painting the cows that the uniform black and white has appeared. The artist also ensured that each cow had a heart shape used as part of the pattern on the cow skin.
Later commentators have interpreted it as an example of conceptual art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
: the artist poking fun at the preconceived notion of the new city
New town
A new town is a specific type of a planned community, or planned city, that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area. This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion. Land use conflicts are uncommon in new...
, held by commentators who had never seen the place, that it would consist entirely of concrete pavements where once there were fields, and where its deprived children would need models to know how real cows once looked. The reality of course was different: Milton Keynes Development Corporation
Milton Keynes Development Corporation
Milton Keynes Development Corporation was established on 23 January 1967 to provide the vision and execution of a "new city", Milton Keynes, that would be the modern interpretation of the Garden city movement concepts first expressed by Ebenezer Howard 60 years earlier...
was building "a city in the forest", with substantially more open green space than found in traditional cities. Furthermore, there are real farms with real cows within 2 miles (3 km) of the site, and the cows are currently located in a real field.
The London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
media was not yet ready for conceptual art: the tabloids' preconceptions of Milton Keynes were confirmed rather than denied and radio DJ
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
Noel Edmonds
Noel Edmonds
Noel Ernest Edmonds, is an English broadcaster and executive, who made his name as a DJ on BBC Radio 1 in the UK. He has presented many light entertainment television programmes, including Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, Top of the Pops, The Late, Late Breakfast Show, Telly Addicts, Noel's Saturday...
regularly made jibes about them.
Response
On their site in a public park, the Cows have suffered many indignities though it could be argued that these were consistent with their conceptual origins. Sometimes they have simply been vandalised,while at other times they have been painted pink, become zebra
Zebra
Zebras are several species of African equids united by their distinctive black and white stripes. Their stripes come in different patterns unique to each individual. They are generally social animals that live in small harems to large herds...
s, had pyjama bottoms added, have been beheaded in the style of Damien Hirst
Damien Hirst
Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...
, have acquired BSE
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy , commonly known as mad-cow disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease in cattle that causes a spongy degeneration in the brain and spinal cord. BSE has a long incubation period, about 30 months to 8 years, usually affecting adult cattle at a peak age onset of...
(mad cow disease) graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
, had one of the calves kidnapped (with ransom notes to the local papers). One of the Cows briefly enjoyed the services of a papier-mâché
Papier-mâché
Papier-mâché , alternatively, paper-mache, is a composite material consisting of paper pieces or pulp, sometimes reinforced with textiles, bound with an adhesive, such as glue, starch, or wallpaper paste....
bull. When UK Culture Minister Kim Howells
Kim Howells
Kim Scott Howells is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Pontypridd from 1989 to 2010, and held a number of ministerial positions within the Government.-Biography:...
referred to modern art trends as "conceptual bullshit", the Cows acquired concrete cow-pats. Local legend has it that the ears of the Cows have shrunk over the years, as more protruding versions have been knocked off by enthusiastic riders.
Significance
In a programme, The Sculpture 100, made for Sky TelevisionSky Digital (UK & Ireland)
Sky is the brand name for British Sky Broadcasting's digital satellite television and radio service, transmitted from SES Astra satellites located at 28.2° east and Eutelsat's Eurobird 1 satellite at 28.5°E. The service was originally launched as Sky Digital, distinguishing it from the original...
in December 2005, the Concrete Cows were included in a list of the 100 most influential works of twentieth century open-air sculpture in England. The list also includes another piece in Milton Keynes: "Triple Starhead" by Paul Neagu
Paul Neagu
Paul Neagu was an internationally important British-Romanian artist, working in diverse media such as drawing, sculpture, performance art and watercolor...
(in Furzton
Furzton
Furzton is a district in West Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England and in the civil parish of Shenley Brook End. The man-made Furzton Lake is a balancing lake that covers approximately half of the district.-History:...
).
In popular culture
The Home supporters stand at Milton Keynes Dons F.C.Milton Keynes Dons F.C.
.Milton Keynes Dons Football Club is an English professional football club founded in 2004 and based since 2007 at Stadium mk, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire...
is known as "The Cowshed". The team mascots are two pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
-style cows named "Donny" and "Mooie".
Actor Russell Crowe joked about the cows in 2007 while promoting the movie 3:10 to Yuma
3:10 to Yuma (2007 film)
3:10 to Yuma is the 2007 remake of the 1957 film of the same name, making it the second adaptation of Elmore Leonard's short story Three-Ten to Yuma. It is directed by James Mangold and produced by Cathy Konrad, and stars Academy Award winners Russell Crowe and Christian Bale in the lead roles. ...
. The cows appear in Charles Stross
Charles Stross
Charles David George "Charlie" Stross is a British writer of science fiction, Lovecraftian horror and fantasy. He was born in Leeds.Stross specialises in hard science fiction and space opera...
' story The Concrete Jungle, and in Mark Wallington
Mark Wallington (writer)
Mark Wallington is an author and broadcaster, perhaps most famous for his humorous "Boogie" travelogues, both memorably serialised on BBC Radio Four. After leaving school, Wallington worked as a jobbing gardener before embarking on a career as a journalist and scriptwriter, his first credit being...
's Destination Lapland, where he marked seeing them a highlight of his passing visit.
Location
The original Cows are currently in Central Milton Keynes Shopping CentreCentral Milton Keynes Shopping Centre
Central Milton Keynes Shopping Centre is a regional shopping centre located in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England which is about 50 miles north-west of London. It is managed in two separate parts, thecentre:mk and Midsummer Place...
. However the replicas in Bancroft are better known, sited next to the A422
A422 road
The A422 is an "A" road for east-west journeys in south central England, connecting the county towns of Bedford and Worcester by way of Milton Keynes, Buckingham, Banbury and Stratford-upon-Avon. For most of its length, is a narrow single carriageway....
(Monks Way), a dual carriageway
Dual carriageway
A dual carriageway is a class of highway with two carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation...
with redway
Milton Keynes redway system
The Milton Keynes redway system is a network of cycleways/paths for cyclists and pedestrians in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It is generally surfaced with red tarmac, and criss-crosses most of the city....
cycle- and footpaths. Using Milton Keynes grid system, the cows are located next to the northern carriageway of H3 Monks Way between V5 Great Monks St. and V6 Grafton St.) where it passes under the West Coast Main Line
West Coast Main Line
The West Coast Main Line is the busiest mixed-traffic railway route in Britain, being the country's most important rail backbone in terms of population served. Fast, long-distance inter-city passenger services are provided between London, the West Midlands, the North West, North Wales and the...
, near its junction with the A5.
The nearest rail stations are Milton Keynes Central
Milton Keynes Central railway station
Milton Keynes Central railway station serves Central Milton Keynes and the surrounding area of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. The station is located on the West Coast Main Line between the stations of Bletchley and Wolverton, both of which are also within Milton Keynes. The station is served by...
and Wolverton
Wolverton railway station
Wolverton railway station serves northern Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, especially Stony Stratford, Wolverton and New Bradwell.The station is served by London Midland local services from Northampton to London on the West Coast Main Line. It is one of the five stations serving Milton Keynes...
. MK Metro
MK Metro
MK Metro was the main bus operator in Milton Keynes in the English county of Buckinghamshire. In February 2006, it was purchased by Arriva Shires & Essex...
buses 4A and 2 between Bletchley, Central Milton Keynes
Central Milton Keynes
Central Milton Keynes is the central business district of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England and a civil parish in its own right.The district is approximately 2.5 km long by 1 km wide and occupies some of the highest land in Milton Keynes...
and Wolverton
Wolverton
Wolverton is part of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England.Wolverton may also refer to:Places in England:*Wolverton, Dorset*Wolverton, Kent*Wolverton, Hampshire*Wolverton, Shropshire*Wolverton, WarwickshirePlaces in the United States:...
call at near-by bus stops on each side of Monks Way near the junction with of H3's northern carriageway and Octavian Drive. If approaching on foot or by bike from these stops, a stream separates the cows from the eastern (Octavian Rd) side of H3. There is a bridge over the stream next to the southern carriageway of H3, and an underpass links this bridge to the cows' field.
See also
- Harold F. ClaytonHarold F. ClaytonHarold F. Clayton is a noted sculptor and stone-carver, best known for several sets of life-size sculptures of cows on display at various public sites in Texas....
— another sculptor of cows - CowParadeCowParadeCowParade is an international public art exhibit that has been featured in major world cities. Fiberglass sculptures of cows are decorated by local artists, and distributed over the city centre, in public places such as train stations, important avenues, and parks. They often feature artwork and...
— a festival of cow sculpture
External links
- 360° animated picture of the Cows, from BBC Three Counties
- New Bradwell School article on the cows, part of the Open UniversityOpen UniversityThe Open University is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom...
Clutch Club website