Time Trail Sculpture Park, Dudley, West Midlands.
Commissioned By Dudley M.B.C. 1998 - 2000
Living Fossil' 3x2.5x2.5m Autumn 2001
My brief for this commission was to create a ‘living fossil’, or a fossil in the process of being formed.
I drew from several different sources of inspiration, including the fossils that are indigenous to Dudley’s past, more specifically the fossil charaphytes, and other early plant forms; and the natural, ephemeral forms, (seed pods, vegetation), that are part of Dudley’s landscape today.
By combining these two elements, I have produced a work that is representative of a seedpod that you might find in the modern landscape, whilst also hinting at its fossil origins.
'The main inspiration for my sculpture came from illustrations of two fossils – a charaphyte, and a medusan. The first thing that drew my attention to them, was that they were three dimensional fossils – this was important as all the fossils I had been looking at were two dimensional, and I wanted to create something that you could approach from all angles.
I liked the segmented shape of the medusan fossil, and the ridged pattern on the charaphyte fossil. I combined these two elements to create the main body of the sculpture. I also wanted to include elements from a seed pod – a shape that has featured in my previous work, and which tied in well with the idea of creating something living, before it was fossilized. Finally, I added the ‘stem’ section and the colour to the sculpture, to reinforce the impression of a living object.'
