Public Art Comes To Worthing
A major sculpture by a Sussex artist will be spending the winter in Worthing’s Beach House Park.
Artist Chris Blade sketched the initial idea for ‘Murmurations’, an eye catching sculpture, on the back of an envelope two years ago. After exhibiting the piece on an A27 roundabout during the Arundel Arts Festival, Chris approached Sussex arts group RAG to see if they could help find a suitable temporary location for the work.
‘Murmurations’ features polished stainless steel seagulls mounted on poles 6 metres high, so RAG’s Dan Thompson enlisted the help of Worthing Borough Council’s parks team and curators at Worthing Museum & Art Gallery to locate the sculpture at the southern end of Beach House Park.
The birds move and react to the environment, whether wind, the light from cloud, sun and sky. Obsessed with flight and a keen paraglider pilot, Chris has created a sculpture which gets as close to flying as is possible.
“This is a striking contemporary sculpture in a stunning location,” says Dan Thompson, “and, with bringing public art to Worthing high on RAG’s agenda for 2006, ‘Murmurations’ should encourage some lively debate.
Already, plans are afoot to move the sculpture to another Worthing location in the spring, and Chris is also looking for further beautiful and prestigious public spaces to display the sculpture either temporarily or permanently.
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