大象传媒

[GO TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE TO SEE WHAT PEOPLE HAVE BEEN SAYING ABOUT THE CRATEHOUSE - AND HAVE YOUR SAY!]

The Cratehouse is certainly a sunny splash of colour in an otherwise nondescript Castleford Street - Sagar Street to be precise. And that's just from the outside! Once you get inside the 'sculpture' (that's what it really is), you're in a different world. Even on a grey and rainy day (and let's face it we get plenty of those in West Yorkshire!), the curved walls glow warmly and cast ever-changing shapes and colours onto the floor. Not bad for a few hundred plastic crates...

Mellow yellow? Castleford's new landmark

It's the brainchild of two German artists, Wolfgang Winter and Berthold H枚rbelt, who were asked to create the Cratehouse as part of an attempt to regenerate Castleford, and it puts Cas in some pretty good company. Since 1992, Wolfgang and Berthold have created Cratehouses in over 25 places across the world including Houston, New York, Hanoi and Obihiro in Japan. Not bad going! Of course, it's quite appropriate that Castleford should end up being listed alongside New York and Hanoi, after all the town has had a real impact on the art world thanks to its most famous son, the sculptor Henry Moore.

The Cratehouse will have its critics, though. You can't just stick a bright yellow circular building on top of a couple of shipping containers at the end of a normal Cas street and expect otherwise. But, Wolfgang explains that a lot of thought has gone into it, and it's certainly not just been thrown together. In fact, he says a great deal of planning and talking with local people always goes into the pair's Cratehouses, wherever they may be. Before the grand opening, the artists had been to Castleford three times and spoke to people in the town while they were working on their ideas for their sculpture/installation/building to find out what they thought about it. Even so, we had to ask why their enthusiasm for yellow plastic crates? Why not something a little more...arty? Wolfgang says the answer's simple: "We wanted to work with materials that are all around us. We don't think art should be shut off from the public!"

Taking a moment in the Cas Cratehouse!

Even the shipping containers which support the Castleford Cratehouse are there for a reason, with Wolfgang and Berthold claiming they reflect the town's industrial heritage and its important location on the meeting point of the rivers Aire and Calder. Wolfgang says: "During our visits to Castleford we saw the metal shipping containers that people in the town use as meeting points, something like small clubhouses...One of our first ideas was to change a little this kind of architecture to create maybe a functional pavilion with sculptural and architectural qualities as a semi-public space where people can stay together in a pleasant way and have fun together!"

And what did Wolfgang and Berthold think of Castleford itself? It's a far cry from Houston or Hanoi after all: "We got to really like the town. We liked the lifestyle, sitting in the pub and looking at the Cratehouse!"听

As for those plans, it seems there's a lot to look forward to. The Castleford Project, as it's known, is a collaboration between a terrestrial TV channel, a number of national regeneration organisations and, of course, people in the town and the surrounding area. Things are already moving, with a total of eleven improvement schemes underway including the creation of a new village green at New Fryston, community park improvements, and a children's playforest at Cutsyke.

Plastic fantastic!: Cas's new Cratehouse

For now, though, the Cratehouse is the most obvious sign that something's changing in Castleford. Its creators, Wolfgang and Berthold are now heading off for Egypt and possibly China, leaving behind them a real landmark! Wolfgang says he'll remember the Cas Cratehouse for a long time to come, and has one particular memory of it which he'll cherish: "Looking at it when it's closed at night, it looks like a big yellow Christmas tree!"

The Cratehouse on Sagar Street in Castleford is open on market days (Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday) between 10am and 4pm. No more than 10 people at a time. Admission is free!