Sculpture Commissions

These commissions are a mixed bunch, and vary between works that are more my ideas and thoughts and those that were made to order, a bit of a bread and butter income – the giant fish for example, is an example of the latter.

My favourite commission is ‘Sea Shell Showcase’. Inspired by working at community radio station, Leith Fm, this was the first work I made that had both a sculptural and socially engaged element.

I was commissioned by public art group Big Things on the Beach and the work was installed on Portobello’s promenade in Scotland. In the weeks leading up to the launch of the shell, I went around Portobello with an MP3 recorder meeting and documenting the voices, talents, hopes, fears and stories of those living in the area.

I then worked with techy whizz, Martin Ling, to put the voices into the giant jesmonite shell. We added two big red buttons, one which played a trumpet sound and told people how to add their voices to the shell and the other that released the pre-recorded voices into the seaside air.

The shell was hoisted onto wheels and spent many a few weeks being pushed up and down the promenade: listened to, danced to, spoken to.

There were some lovely moments: two elderly people discovering they shared a memory in common; kids dancing their socks off to a local singer; late night kisses to the sounds of a local ghost story.