In celebration of Hadrian’s Wall’s 1900th anniversary, English Heritage has installed a contemporary and colourful take on the original Roman gatehouse at Housesteads Roman Fort – one of the Wall’s best preserved and most important sites.
Created by renowned artist r, Morag Myerscough and the local community the temporary installation – called ‘The Future Belongs To What Was As Much As What Is’ – stands in the exact spot that the north gatehouse at Housesteads once stood. The colourful re-imagining of the gatehouse echos the original building in size and as visitors can climb to the top, the installation opens up views of the ancient landscape, last seen by Roman soldiers 1600 years ago.
The brightly coloured wooden placards that comprise the outer shell of the artwork, over a largescale scaffold frame, were designed in response to the collection of Roman artefacts on display Chesters Roman Fort Museum, Roman designs and community workshops. The words and phrases seen across the installation come from Morag’s collaboration with poet, Ellen Moran and the local community through workshops where volunteers also helped to paint the placards, following the artist’s designs.
As part of the HW1900 Festival, the installation is open to the public from 30th July to 30th October 2022, after which the structure will be completely removed and the placards will be offered to the community members who painted them.
