Gordon Young is a British artist specialising in public art, often including typographical elements. His ''Comedy Carpet'' on Blackpool Promenade (2011), at 2,200m², has been said to be the largest piece of public art in Britain. He was born in

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern England, Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, Eden, River C ...

and trained at

Coventry Polytechnic , mottoeng = By Art and Industry , established = , type = Public , endowment = £28 million (2015) , budget = £787.5 million , chancellor = Margaret Casely-Hayford , vice_chancellor = John Latham , students = () , underg ...

and at the Royal College of Art. He was curator of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and director of the Welsh Sculpture Trust before becoming a full-time artist in 1984. The Gem Stane at Kirroughtree - geograph

The Gem Stane at Kirroughtree - geograph

Works

Young's works include: *''Fish Pavement'' (1992),

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...

: a trail of 40 lifesize fish or groups of fish inset into pavements, leading the visitor around this city with its fishing heritage. They include a plaice in the Market Place, monkfish at Blackfriars Gate, and a shark outside a bank. Renovated in 2000. *Cursing Stone and Reiver Pavement (2001),

: a walkway (connecting Tullie House Museum to

Carlisle Castle Carlisle Castle is a medieval stone keep castle that stands within the English city of Carlisle near the ruins of Hadrian's Wall. First built during the reign of William II in 1093 and rebuilt in stone under Henry I in 1122, the castle is over ...

under a main road) showing the names of border reiver families, and a 14-ton granite boulder showing part of a curse against these families which bishop Gavin Dunbar caused to be read out in churches in 1525. *''A Flock of Words'' (2002),

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district in Lancashire, England. It is in Morecambe Bay on the Irish Sea. Name The first use of the name was by John Whitaker in his ''History of Manchester'' (1771), w ...

: a 300m pathway linking the railway station to the sea front, with proverbs and poems about birds set into the paving *''7stanes'' (2008), Southern Scotland: a stone at each of seven mountain bike trails (including the Border Stane near the border, which has ''

Auld Lang Syne "Auld Lang Syne" (: note "s" rather than "z") is a popular song, particularly in the English-speaking world. Traditionally, it is sung to bid farewell to the old year at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve. By extension, it is also often ...

'' and '' Jerusalem'' on its two sides with a hole in the middle through which hands can be shaken). *''Comedy Carpet'' (2011),

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

: reportedly Britain's largest piece of public art, an area of 2,200m² or 1,800m² (sources vary) on Festival Headland on the promenade, opposite Blackpool Tower. It shows jokes and punchlines from comedians who have performed in Blackpool over the decades, totalling 160,000 letters. Each letter is cut from granite and inset in white concrete, in a variety of typefaces. Five months after it was opened, the local council controversially removed part of the work because viewers were thought to be in danger of stepping backwards into the path of trams. The work earned Young the 2012

Marsh Award for Excellence in Public Sculpture The Marsh Award for Excellence in Public Sculpture is an annual award for public sculpture in the UK or Ireland. The Award is funded by the Marsh Charitable Trust and is made on the recommendation of a panel of judges under the auspices of the P ...

. and in 2014 was joint winner of the International Society of Typographic Designers' International Typographic Award, *''Bird Stones'' (2014), Mill Road Cemetery, Cambridge: one wood and six stone pieces inspired by bird song. *''Radioactive Art'' (2017): a BBC Radio 4 programme about art to mark sites of radioactive waste storage. *''Ealing Rock'' (2018): stone sculpture in Elizabeth Square,

Ealing Ealing () is a district in West London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. Ealing is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Ealing was histor ...

, west London, bearing words from George Formby's song "Count your Blessings and Smile" from the 1940 film '' Let George Do It!'', filmed at Ealing Studios. *''Down to earth'' (commissioned 2019): seven globes of brick with text, as part of

Canal to Creek Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow und ...

a public art project associated with the WestConnex road scheme in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Australia. ''Includes 5 minute video of Young discussing the work''

References

External links

*
Comedy Carpet website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Gordon Year of birth missing (living people) Living people British artists