Description:
Commissioned after a selected shortlist and public exhibition of drawings and maquettes. Following the theme ‘Fires of Industry’ we designed five sculptural elements that related through visual alignments between the sculptures themselves and the urban environment and by use of earth mounding to make a cohesive whole of this very large roundabout (85m wide). There are three steel wedge/arch structures 6m high x 25m long. Each wedge contains a cut out design representing a local industry; glass, chain making and mining.

We have used different shades of red on each structure to denote the range of red heat used to forge and temper steel. One wedge aligns with a 20m tall steel Flame Tower on the southern edge of the roundabout. It is topped by a 4m tall ‘flame’ in stainless steel tube which is lit at night by amber and red lighting.

Commission Title: Founding

Sculptors:
Philip Bews and
Diane Gorvin

Production Period:
May1999 - July 2000


 

Site:
Cinder Bank Interchange, Southern Bypass

Commissioned By:
Dudley Metropolitan Borough
 

Production Method: Phil designed the steel work with Diane working out the cut out elements. The drawings were modified, in some cases, by Peter Goodhind, Structural Engineers and fabricated by Senior Steel Ltd Cheltenham.

Phil fitted coloured glass ‘sparks’ within the cut out designs in the structures, with silicone mastic. The 3m high figure was made in direct plaster over a steel armature by both sculptors and cast into bronze by Castle Fine Art Foundry.