Artist Alma Tischler Wood was selected from an open call out to create a North Downs Way End of Trail Marker on the Dover Esplanade.

COMMISSIONER Natural England, National Trails

OWNER Kent County Council

MORE INFO Dover Arts Development

PHOTOGRAPHS Nigel Green

Charles Holland: “Alma Tischler Wood’s Start/Finish line marks the conceptual beginning and end of the North Downs Way. It is a subtle and delightful work that inverts our expectations of public artworks (a heroic figure to look up to) and playfully refers to the sense of achievement we get from completing a long walk or a healthy bout of exercise.

It consists of little more than a strip of black granite set into the esplanade into which are carved the words Start/Finish. In a seafront jostling with remarkable structures it inserts itself undemonstratively but with restrained elegance and understated wit. The hero in this instance is the viewer, who by standing on it completes the sculpture.”