A public artwork built for hands-on curiosity has a new home in Farnham. A Hand’s Turn, an interactive installation of 20 metal cones, has been rehomed from its original Longbridge site to the Sculpture Garden beside the University for the Creative Arts. UCA announced the move on Sept. 29, ahead of the town’s October Craft Month. The new setting places the piece among other public artworks and near the university’s Craft Study Centre.
The sculpture is meant to invite movement. Visitors can spin, tap and wind the cones, which turn the familiar geometric form into something to explore with the hands. The artists, Natalie Bradwell and Livia Spinolo, developed it with Farnham Town Council, UCA, Farnham Maltings, New Ashgate Gallery and the Farnham Public Arts Trust. The project grew from a public commission intended to connect people with the place around the artwork and with one another.
The commission itself was a long-running collaboration. Local reporter Richard Murie says the project was conceived in 2020 and assigned to the winning artists in 2022. Its brief called for ambitious public art that could help people connect with the work and with one another. That intention is reflected in the sculpture’s interactive design: instead of asking passersby only to look, it makes movement part of the encounter. Workshop participants added textures to the metal, leaving a record of public participation in the finished forms.
The cones also carry references to Farnham’s craft landscape. Local reporting says the artists drew inspiration from photographs of barley stored in conical piles at the Maltings. UCA adds that the cone carries local associations with the town’s malting, pottery and kiln-making heritage. The moving forms bring those references into an outdoor setting where people can approach them from different angles. The artwork does not prescribe one interpretation; its designers made a familiar shape tactile and kinetic, allowing visitors to explore it through motion as well as sight.
Local residents took part before the sculpture was installed. UCA says people young and old joined community workshops and hammered textures into metal sheets that became part of the work. Those marks were intended to reflect the town’s craft traditions. UCA says the project was made possible by developer contributions connected to new student accommodation at the university. The artwork therefore carries both the artists’ design and marks made by community participants.
Its first chapter was not universally welcomed. The cones drew complaints at their original Longbridge site, and the artwork was damaged before it was removed for repair. Local radio reporter Richard Murie reported that Waverley Borough Council’s planning committee had wanted the sculpture kept in place until a suitable new home could be found. The relocation now gives the piece a different setting without erasing the debate that surrounded it.
Bradwell helped restore the cones for their return. UCA and local reporting describe dents being worked out with slide hammers, including from inside the structures, before the metal was cleaned, polished and lacquered. The finish is now permanently gold, the artist said, rather than the original brass coating. She said she hopes local people will find a new affection for the installation and described it as something intended to be played with and hugged.
UCA jewellery and silversmithing student Katie Weston focused on the texture left by hammering and the opportunity for hands-on interaction, describing both as strengths of the public display. Her response offers one view of how the piece may be experienced, rather than a claim that every visitor will react the same way.
UCA announced that the rehoming was arranged in time for the launch of Farnham’s October Craft Month. That timing links the sculpture to a wider celebration of making in the town, while its community-workshop origins remain visible in the textured metal. The university says it welcomes visitors as well as students to engage with the cones. The installation’s next chapter will depend on how people respond to it in this new place.
A Hand’s Turn began as a shared commission, passed through a difficult first location, and returned after its makers repaired it. Its new home offers another chance for people to meet the work on its own terms: by walking among the cones, noticing the marks on their surfaces and, where appropriate, giving the moving forms a gentle turn.
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