HopSkipJump
24 June 2026 - January 2014
photo: Sussie Ahlburg
Ultimate Holding Company (UHC) is an established group of artist pioneers and provocateurs operating at the junction of contemporary visual art, engaged design practice and social activism. They are concerned with the process of collective production, social solidarity, and the role of artists and designers in creating sustainable communities.
In Paddock Wood UHC have developed a collaboration with the users of Putlands Leisure Centre in order to ‘elevate the sole’ of the area. Members of the centre, staff and residents have contributed to a sculptural piece of interactive art that creates new social connections, a shared set of values and a reminder of the town’s significance.
HopSkipJump is a large-scale sculptural chandelier which juxtaposes the analogue with the digital, resonating with the history of the area and its current uses. The chandelier, which hangs glowing in the stairwell of the sports centre, is an amalgamation of illuminated digital LED text display boards crowning a soft, fabric female hop flower constructed from recycled sports shoes.
UHC’s work re-engineers materials and ideas familiar to a municipal interior and contrasts these with refashioned trainers donated by users of the sports centre creating a piece at once familiar and yet unexpected. The LED text displays show a looped series of varied personal bests revealed by members of the sports centre, emphasising a shared value of individual and collective achievement and challenge. Within the heart of the LEDs hangs a beautiful hop flower, reaffirming the historical importance of the hop-growing industry to the surrounding area, its community and the growth of Paddock Wood.
HopSkipJump will be at Putlands Leisure centre until January 2014 and the artists continue to work with the users of the centre to establish a growing set of personal bests which will be celebrated on the sculpture.
Hoodwink will be updating the LEDs with more personal bests. To contribute your own achievement email or tweet them to:
www.elevateyoursole.tumblr.com
@elevateyoursole