"the great tower": conception and construction of a very large bronze sculpture

Leonardo

"The Great Tower": Conception and Construction of a Very Large Bronze SculptureAuthor(s): AlexanderSource: Leonardo, Vol. 18, No. 1 (1985), pp. 24-27Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1578089 .

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The Great Tower: Conception and Construction

of a Very Large Bronze Sculpture

Alexander

Abstract- The Great Tower is an extremely large bronze sculpture, standing 10 metres high beside the lake at Rutland Water, near Leicester, England. The following describes how it was conceived and created, with reference to some of the problems caused by its large scale. The relationship between sculpture and environment is also discussed.

I. BACKGROUND

My thinking for The Great Tower began as a preoccupation with structures that reach up into the sky, carrying one's attention upwards away from the earth, the same concept that has occupied the minds of church builders over the i- centuries. During a period of some 3 months, I made numerous sketches of towers and other tall structures, without any clear thoughts about the end result. Eventually a balanced asymmetrical form . emerged that stood out from all the other ~ drawings. The name The Great Tower A came into my mind as soon as I looked at -- my finished drawing.

I made a wax model of the structure 50 cm (20 in.) high, had it cast in bronze, ,i patinated the large curved faces and polished the other surfaces to create a contrast. The finished maquette fulfilled all of the promise I had seen in the drawing and, even though it was only 50 cm high, I could envisage the large- scale work set in a landscape. I photo- graphed the maquette (Fig. 1) in a way that would convey the impression of the finished large-scale work, with trees in the background to represent the landscape setting.

I included the maquette of The Great Tower at an exhibition and it attracted a lot of interest. After this exhibition I began seeking a site where such a large work could be situated and learned that a very large sculpture was being sought to become the artistic feature of the landscape around Rutland Water, which is near Leicester, England.

Before visiting Rutland Water I was somewhat apprehensive. It seemed a remote place for a major work. However, once I saw the beauty and scale of the landscape I was delighted with the

Alexander (sculptor), RMB 161 Bay Road, Arcadia, ...... N.S.W. 2159, Australia.

Received 29 June 1984. Fig. 1. The maquette for The Great Tower. Cast in bronze and patinated, model is 50 cm (20 in.) high.

Pergamon Press Ltd. 24 LEONARDO, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 24-27, 1985 Printed in Great Britain.

0024-094X/85 $3.00+0.00



location and realised that I was very fortunate to have such a suitable setting for the sculpture. Rutland Water, with a surface area of 3100 acres, is the largest manmade lake in England. It was created by flooding two valleys and provides not only a major source of water for the area, but also leisure facilities. The area around the lake was designed by landscape architect Dame Sylvia Crowe. Dame Sylvia and I took the maquette of the Tower to Rutland Water where she was able to use it to determine the exact location and orientation of the sculpture at the side of the lake. I had been thinking in terms of a height of 30 to 40 feet and at Rutland Water it seemed that 10 metres (33 ft) would be ideal.

II. FORM CONSTRUCTION AND CASTING

I was then faced with the task of building the enormous form from which the casting would be made. I worked with Morris Singer Foundry because they had experience making very large sculptures. The form was far too large to construct in my studio and there was not a large enough free space at the foundry, so I decided to make it at a factory experienced in making structures for exhibitions.

In the factory we first built a wooden framework similar to the hull of a boat, except that the struts were set in concave instead of convex curves. We mounted sheets of polystyrene foam against the inside of this framework to create the walls and thicker blocks of polystyrene foam inside these sheets to strengthen the walls (see Fig. 2). Finally we built a bracing framework inside to give the unit internal strength. We then removed the outside wooden framework so that the polystyrene form stood alone as if it were solid.

At this stage the form was lying on its front face because in the upright position it would have been too tall to fit under the factory roof. We put a flat coating of plaster on the surfaces that would later be finished smooth with a light bronze colour and a textured plaster on the large curved sides, which would later be given a darker patina. We then cut the form into eight sections in order to transport it to the foundry.

Once at the foundry, we rebuilt the structure in the yard outside and saw it for the first time in its correct upright position. Unfortunately the next day there was a violent snowstorm which caused so much deterioration in the form that it had to be taken back to the factory and reworked. Once completed, the form

Fig. 2. Partially constructed form for The Great Tower. A wood frame was first constructed and then removed after it served as the support for constructing a polystyrene form.

was returned to the foundry where it was cut up into 40 sections and a separate bronze casting was made of each. I use sand casting for all of my large bronze sculptures rather than 'lost wax' because it is a less expensive and a more direct process for such works.

We made up the complete bronze in four horizontal sections. As we could only fit a height of two sections under the roof of the foundry, we made them up one section at a time, checking that each adjacent piece fitted together. We then welded together sections 1 and 2, and sections 3 and 4, and moved these two halves outside for final assembly. The final task of welding the top half to the bottom was quite a difficult job, given the large scale of these two structures (Fig. 3). The textured sides were given a patina of dark brown with some green, and the smooth surfaces a lighter patina to maintain the contrast. The sculpture was then transported to Rutland Water where it was mounted on a large, deep, pre-

viously prepared concrete base beside the lake (Fig. 4).

III. GENERAL PROBLEMS WITH LARGE-SCALE SCULPTURE

Problems created by the very large scale of this sculpture occurred at every stage of the process. As the form could not be placed in its proper upright position either at the factory or in the foundry we were denied the opportunity of seeing the shape taking place and were unable to make continuous visual checks. We had to rely on the accuracy of our method of scaling up from the maquette. This problem would have been much worse if I had not always visualized the sculpture in its full size.

As we had to make many separate castings we had to check carefully at every stage of the welding process for misalignment or indentations of the walls. We also had to remove welding marks while retaining the texture on the large curved sides.

Alexander, The Great Tower 25



Fig. 3. Final assembly of the sculpture. Forty separate cast forms comprise the final piece.

The finishing work was particularly difficult. Patination is always unpredict- able-the same strength mixture usually produces different results with each casting. If a patina does not produce the right colour on a sculpture 1 to 2 metres high, it is quite a simple job to change it. However, when the potassium sulphate solution produced an unsatisfactory dark blue colour on The Great Tower it was a major operation to remove it and start again.

Although the form appears balanced and stable to the eye, once removed from the ground it was very unbalanced and had to be lifted by two very large cranes. One anticipated problem never materi- alized. An internal steel girder structure had been designed to go inside the sculpture and link the internal surfaces to

give it strength. However, during the assembly of the casting it became clear that the bronze shell itself was extremely strong and the girder structure would not be required.

IV. CONCLUSION

Although The Great Tower is the largest and to me most dramatic work I have made, in style it is consistent with my other works in two ways. Firstly, in creating my sculptures I always try to develop each work in the simplest form that I can envisage. At the same time this simplicity must not in any way reduce the effectiveness of the sculpture to communicate. Secondly, there is a particular combination of organic and geometric forms which always seems present in my

work. Abstract sculptors tend to fall loosely into two groups: those who work with organic or natural shapes, such as Henry Moore (in his more abstract pieces), Jean Arp and Barbara Hepworth, and those sculptors who use geometric or clearly defined, recognizable shapes and avoid anything organic. Most of the sculptors in the latter category are American. For some reason, neither deliberate nor conscious, I seem unable to make a satisfactory work that is entirely organic or entirely geometric. In The Great Tower the simplicity of form is apparent and the large curved sides have an organic character, whereas the other surfaces are clearly geometric.

The relationship of sculpture to the environment is another important aspect of my work. I believe the artist has a




Fig. 4. The Great Tower, bronze, 10 x 5 x 2.5 m, 1980.

particular responsibility when creating a work for a public place. When a collector buys a sculpture in a gallery he or she makes a decision with adequate know- ledge and full responsibility. However, when a work is placed in a public site the vast majority of people who will see that work are likely to have a limited know- ledge of art and will not have made a contribution to the decision of selecting and placing the work. I believe the artist should be conscious of this situation and create a work that will suit all prevailing conditions of the site, human as well as environmental, or in those cases where the work is made first, find an environment appropriate for the work, whether through complement or contrast.

Finally, to help some of the people whose first question would be "What is it supposed to represent?" I have put the following statement along with each of my public sculptures:

Mankind is capable of an awareness that is outside the range of every- day life. My monumental sculptures are created to communicate with that awareness in a way similar to classical music. Just as most symphonies are not intended to be descriptive so these works do not represent figures or objects.




"the great tower": conception and construction of a very large bronze sculpture

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