Twenty Years on and still standing

I am chuffed to have just received an email from artuk.org who have registered a sculpture I made back in 2001 in their national survey of public art. It still stands at Cricklewood Millennium Green in London, all be it in a fairly battered state. It has hung on despite it’s fellow, elsewhere on the same site, succumbing to arson a few years back.

'Boiler'

Based on a section through a steam locomotive.

'Steamer'

Was it a barbecue or was it arson?

Flower power

Wind power sculptures made during a Summer workshop

Cargo

A few years after the millennium some carriages carrying the moon, the sun and the earth were added to the ensemble.

The commission for two ‘feature’ sculptures also incorporated seating and cast bronze engine plates with plant designs which were part of a nature trail. Most of the cast panels have been stolen for scrap over the years but somehow the Oak lettering and acorn leaf design on this sculpture has survived. Pupils at Claremont Primary school carved the plant designs and pupils at Hampstead secondary school modelled the lettering. The sculpture is heavily tagged with graffiti but still provides a landmark that can be seen from passing trains as well as giving panoramic views of the railway lands of Cricklewood. The granite set rails it sits on were dug up on the site and some of the sleepers were donated by Railtrack. It was one of my first sculpture commissions locally and although I feel it never quite sat on the ground in a very satisfactory way it’s massive bulk and robust bolted oak sleeper construction has kept it well grounded.

Happily a Brent Cross Town community grant is to fund some restoration work for me to make some much needed repairs to the sculptures and seating in the spring of 2022. Hopefully this will help see them into another decade, if not a millennium.