Constellations of identity: Place-ma(r)king beyond heritage

In this paper we will critically consider the different ways in which history and belonging have been treated in artworks situated in the Citadel development in Ayr on the west coast of Scotland. We will focus upon one artwork, Constellation by Stephen Hurrel, as an alternative to the more conventional landscapes of heritage which are adjacent, in order to examine the relationship between personal history and place history and argue the primacy of participatory process in the creation of place and of any artwork therein. Through his artwork, Hurrel has attempted to adopt a material process through which place can be created performatively but, in part due to its nonrepresentational form, it proves problematic, aesthetically and longitudinally, in wholly engaging the community. We will suggest that, through variants of 'new genre public art' such as this, personal and place histories can be actively recreated through the redevelopment of contemporary urban landscapes, but we will also highlight the complexities and indeterminacies involved in the relationship between artwork, people, and place.