Steve Messam's primary interest lies in the crossover between popular culture and contemporary arts practice, with a particular emphasis on the way it relates to rurally isolated communities. Messam is a co-founder of Fold, an artist-led organisation based in Kirkby Stephen on the Cumbria, North Yorkshire and County Durham borders. Established in 2001, Fold aims to provide and promote access to contemporary art in the rural environment and challenge the preconceptions of work by rural artists. Messam is also co-founder and Director of FRED, an annual art event in Cumbria. It consists of installations and interventions in non-gallery environments. FRED has become Europe’s largest festival of site-specific work.
Souvenir, a site-specific installation made from 92 umbrellas across the wasteland, surrounding Island6, leads the visitor to an alternate view of the Orient Pearl Tower. By day, the umbrellas form red balls that emphasize the contrast between two individual architectural structures: Island6, a preserved remnant of Suzhou Creek's industrial past and the Orient Pearl Tower a symbol of the new ‘New China’. True to the tradition of chinese garden design, the red dots reveal a new view of the surrounding city, the brick warehouse of Island6 arts centre becoming a unique architectural pavilion in the concrete high-rise landscape. The relative tranquility of the former flour mills and the encroaching wilderness, complete with mongoose, frogs and crickets is a veritable oasis in a city of 17 million air-conditioned properties.