SCULPTURE EDITIONS
Learn about how Sunrise was made.
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Inspiration
Sunrise was created in response to the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 and was made to honour all those who lost their lives and to pay respect to the courage of the survivors and bereaved families in the face of untold tragedy.
The sculpture is inspired by the design ideas of Danish polymath Piet Hein, who said that, ‘Art is the solution to the problems that cannot be explained before they are solved.’
The rosewood SOMA cubes, which were designed by Hein form part of the building blocks of the sculpture and were inserted into the raw clay before moulding. They represent the structural elements of Grenfell Tower and the many possibilities going forward that could prevent such a disaster from happening again.
The superellipse, a harmonic shape discovered by Hein referenced in the headshape acts as an intermediary form between the two extremes of the circle and square and is designed to bring a feeling of harmony to the person viewing it.
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Materials
Sunrise was sculpted on a wire armature in clay, before being moulded and cast into bronze at Castle Fine Arts Foundry in Wales.
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Editions
Sunrise is a bronze edition of 12.
Editions currently available: 3/12 to 12/12
Please note, there is a 14 week delivery time from the point of order for any new editions.
Please get in touch for more information.
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Clay
Sunrise is an intuitive artwork and took several days to create.
The sculpture began with the construction of a wire armature, before adding clay to build up an intial form.
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SOMA Cubes by Piet Hein
Rosewood SOMA cubes were introduced into the wet clay to symbolise the structural elements of a tower block and also to respresent the many ideas and configurations in which such a tragedy could be avoided in the future.
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Rubber Mould
As soon as the sculpture was ready, it was taken to the foundry to be moulded.
The moulding process uses a rubber silicone to take a detailed impression of every shape and mark within the clay. This allows a wax replica of the sculpture to be created from the mould.
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Ceramic Shell
Once a wax replica is made, it is covered in several layers of ceramic shell. This process can take many days, before the shell covering is robust enough to take the molten bronze during the pour. At this point, the wax will melt away, leaving a perfect bronze in its place.
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Bronze Cast
This is a picture of Sunrise after the bronze pour has taken place.
Once the bronze has cooled, the ceramic shell is broken away, leaving just the cast bronze sculpture.
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Sandblast
Here Sunrise has been sandblasted to clean away any remaining ceramic shell.
Smaller sections such as the halo are moulded and cast seperately to ensure every detail is maintained.
The sections will be welded together by the metalwork team before the final stage of patination.
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Patination
Patination is adding a colour to the surface of the bronze. It is alchemy in action!
Once the colour effect has been achieved, a final layer of wax is applied to fix the patina.
This edition of Sunrise has a blue-green patina with a black underlay that shines through the angular edges and base of the sculpture.
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