Design revealed for M62 sculpture

May 8 2008 by Laura Sharpe, Liverpool Daily Post

A 60FT-HIGH elongated white face has been unveiled as the iconic sculpture that will sit high above the M62 near St Helens.

World-famous artist Jaume Plensa revealed the final design for the spectacular Big Art landmark yesterday after months of speculation and debate.

His design, the head of a nine-year-old girl, called Dream, will be cast in concrete mixed with white marble, giving it a white shimmer.

It will be sited on the 250ft hill of the former Sutton Manor Colliery site, facing south, if planning permission is granted.

At night, lights positioned around the circular plinth will give the face a ghostly, shimmery appearance.

A spotlight in the top of the head will be turned on at certain times of the year to shine a powerful beam towards the sky.

Ex-miners, who worked in the 2,300ft shaft until it closed in 1991, have given their approval to the design after they worked with Jaume to help him shape his idea.

Gary Conley, head of Sutton Colliery ex-miners community focus group, said Jaume had captured St Helens’s potential and the imagination of the community.

“The image of miners is men wearing cloth hats who are pigeon fanciers and go clog dancing,” Mr Conley said.

“But if you look closer they are passionate, caring men, who have had to forge a new working life, and if Sutton Manor was still open we’d all be back there working.

“Two-and-a-half-years ago, when we first heard about the project, all we wanted was something to do with mining, such as a lamp sculpture. We could have played safe, created a crowd pleaser for all the people who love nostalgia.

“But we learned how art can affect everyone and we didn’t want something locked in history, but a design that would last into the future and reflect our major heritage.

“Jaume has encapsulated all our hopes and aspirations in this piece. Sutton Manor will never give a piece of coal again, but its soul and miners’ memories will still live on into the future.”

The Barcelona-born artist is best-known for his dramatic Crown Fountain, in Chicago, which uses similar elongated faces. His public artworks in the UK include a laser beam light sculpture at the Baltic Arts Centre, in Gateshead.

He said: “A head keeps the brain which has our dreams and ideas. We dream when we sleep.

“The girl has her eyes closed; she isn’t dead, she’s asleep, dreaming, when everything is possible.

“The main thing was trying to bring all the miners’ memories into the future. On my first visit to the site, I thought we had to capture the soul of the site.

“This piece is an excuse to connect tradition and history into the future. I have children and it isn’t always possible to pass on information to them.

“Art can help us open up the history of the site to them and make everyone who sees it stop and think.”

The progress of St Helens’s Dream is being filmed for The Big Art Project, an ambitious public art commissioning initiative from Channel 4 which will see six iconic sculptures put into local communities across the UK.

In St Helens, the Art Fund has already put £500,000 towards the cost of the project with funding in place for up to £1m.

St Helens Council leader, Cllr Brian Spencer, said: “I hope this will make people realise we are not just stuck between Liverpool and Manchester, but we are the best.”

A planning application will be submitted at the end of May with organisers hoping to install the artwork by the end of the year.

WATCH Samantha Parker's video report from the launch of the new sculpture. Log on to www. liverpooldailypost.co.uk/video

laurasharpe