





Client: Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council
Location: Dudley, United Kingdom
Artwork budget: $130,000
Project Team
Artist
Philip Bews
Artist
Diane Gorvin
Industry Resource
Chris Butler
Castle Fine Arts Foundry
Industry Resource
Senior Steel
Senior Steel Ltd
Overview
Materials – bronze, painted mild steel, stainless steel, coloured glass and plants. The theme for this 85m wide roundabout was Fires of Industry. It contains three steel Wedge/Arch structures 6m high x 25m long, a Flame Tower, steel, 20m high and a 3m high bronze figure.
Goals
Each wedge contains a profile cut design representing a local industry - glass, chain making and mining and the three tilted arch forms references the local Wren's Nest Caves. The different shades of red on each structure denote the range of red heat in tempering steel. Coloured glass ‘sparks’ are set within the cut out designs. The 16m Flame Tower on the edge of the roundabout is topped by a 4m tall ‘Flame’ in stainless steel tube. The planting was designed to work with the sculptures and emphasise the alignments. The final sculptural element is a 3m high bronze Heroic Worker we made in direct plaster and had cast into bronze at Castle Fine Art Foundry
Process
Steve Field - resident artist and public art adviser to Dudley Metropolitan Council - managed the project to shortlist sculptors for three roundabouts, and sites along the Southern Bypass. We were shortlisted for the Cinder Bank Interchange, and our proposal was selected after a public exhibition of all the maquettes - where the local community could vote for their choice of the various works. Senior Steel fabricated the steel arch/wedges based on the artists drawings, Betty Harrison - Phil's sister - cut the coloured glass elements, and Castle Fine Arts Foundry made the mould for the large worker in the sculptors' studio, to then cast into bronze at their foundry. Phil worked with the council's landscape architect on the planting scheme.