Southsea Model Village has long held an attraction to me. I am not sure if they really do this in other countries but for me, growing up in the UK visiting model villages was part of my childhood as I am sure it was for many other people. So when we started to work on how we were going to adapt Matt Wingett novel The Snow Witch for Cursed City – Dark Tide. The fact that much of the story takes place in and around the model village drew us to doing something special in the location.
I really liked the idea of taking characters out of the book and placing them in the model village. In particular, we all wanted to see Donitza busking in the town square. Working with local artist and model maker James Waterfield we commissioned two figures, a Donitza figure complete with a violin case. Plus a Lissitch figure, thorough in this instance Lissitch is represented as a street artist pasting up his art around the corner of one of the buildings.
The owners of the model village were extremely supportive and we have to say a big thanks to them for allowing us to add to their collection. It was great fun to spend a day there installing the models and I also took the opportunity to do a short interview on camera with Matt. I think was a little overwhelmed by the experience of seeing his creations bought to life in this way.
Of course, Lissitch is not the only street artist to have their work in the model village. Aside from the full-size piece by My Dog Sighs, there are mini pieces by NZIE, BERKY, FARK and MY DOG SIGHS. I think this must be the only place in existence where you can do a mini street art tour. Go take a look and see if you can spot all the different pieces.
Cursed City – Dark Tide is funded by Arts Council England to produce a transmedia story experience that will be delivered this autumn as part of Darkfest 2019.
