PLYMOUTH.- Today, the UK’s largest bronze sculpture named “Messenger” arrived into Plymouth by sea, before her installation at her new home in front of Theatre Royal Plymouth.

Commissioned by TRP as a monument to the power of creativity and the arts, the sculpture created by British artist Joseph Hillier catches a young female actor mid-performance, embodying the energy and creativity at the heart of the Theatre Royal and cultural life in Plymouth.

The reason Messenger arrived by sea, was because at 30ft wide by 23ft tall, the 10-ton sculpture was too large to fit under bridges leading to the city. Two weeks ago Messenger arrived in Plymouth from the foundry in Wales in three pieces so she could fit under motorway bridges. A team from the foundry, who have spent the last two years constructing the sculpture, used Plymouth’s Royal Naval Base to assemble the sculpture so that she could then be brought by sea to within half a mile of the Theatre from where a final road journey was possible.

Her journey from Plymouth Royal Naval base to the Theatre Royal Plymouth today saw Messenger travelling across Plymouth Sound at dawn and arriving into Millbay Docks by barge. Travelling upright across the sea fully exposed to the elements she was bolted onto the barge to ensure her stability. She was then craned onto a low-loader and driven at processional pace through Plymouth city centre before arriving at the Royal Parade where she was lifted into place in front of the theatre.

It will now take engineers three days to complete Messenger’s foundations before the sculpture is unveiled to the public on Friday 22nd March in the evening. She is the largest bronze sculpture ever to be cast in the UK with a volume of 25.6 cubic metres, having taken over 2 years to cast the 200 individual panels that make up the sculpture.

Adrian Vinken OBE Chief Executive of Theatre Royal Plymouth: “We believe that a sculpture of this quality and scale will have a positive transformational impact not just on our Theatre but also on the whole of Plymouth’s city centre. A major piece of public art can transform the world’s perception of what a place is like; it makes a statement about a city – it’s ambitious, it’s contemporary and it’s forward looking. It will create a unique landmark for the city and strengthen its cultural offering. In time it may become one of those iconic figures that destinations become forever associated with. It will cause controversy. The Angel of the North faced a tremendous amount of opposition when it was proposed but is now an integral part of life in the North East. We hope our new sculpture will become just that here in Plymouth.”

Joseph Hillier sculptor: “The title, “Messenger” refers to the pivotal role the performer takes to breathe life into the words of a writer and the intent of a director. The sculpture celebrates the potential of creativity as a dynamic catalyst for change. This work offers a young powerful woman, a potent force, about to transform the world by her actions. The actor carries the voice of her playwright or director - she carries a message. It’s a metaphor for what great theatre does.”

Messenger
Weighing in at nine and a half tonnes with a height of seven metres (23ft) and nine metres (30ft) wide, Messenger is the largest lost-wax cast bronze sculpture to be cast in the UK and by far the largest bronze sculpture by volume at 25.6 metres cubed. Commissioned by the Theatre Royal Plymouth as part of a 7.5million pound regeneration project which saw the theatre reopened in 2013, “Messenger” has been created by the acclaimed contemporary artist and sculptor Joseph Hillier.

Hillier’s inspiration for the sculpture came from a split-second pose struck by an actor during rehearsals for Othello, Theatre Royal Plymouth’s award-winning and explosive co-production with Frantic Assembly in 2014. The sculpture has been created using 3D scans taken from an actor poised before bursting forward into the choreographed chaos of the play. Although gargantuan in scale, the pose of the sculpture is small, crouched and loaded with the potential to spring forward at any moment. A monument to creativity, Theatre Royal Plymouth’s sculpture will reflect the rapid pace of cultural and economic development in the city and its creative future ambitions.

How is Messenger being made?
Designed using 360-degree Computer Aided Design (CAD), the software used to scan the actor’s body, there are over 14 million polygons within the structure of the sculpture. The first step of the process was to carve sections of the 30ft sculpture from a giant block of polyurethane foam. Pattern cutters broke down Joseph’s design for the sculpture into the 200 panels that make up the sculpture. A giant cutting machine was then programmed to carve each panel into polyurethane using a drill bit revolving at 7,000 times a minute. Once all 200 panels were cut they were transported to the Castle Fine Arts Foundry in Wales.

The foundry creates a silicon rubber mould around each polyurethane panel to make a negative version of each of the 200 panels which are then hand-painted with layers of wax. A shell of ceramic is then built around the wax. This is fired in a kiln, which burns off the wax but leaves behind a hard-ceramic surround. Ingots of bronze are then heated to 1200 degrees C before the molten bronze is poured into the new ceramic mould. Once set, the ceramic shell is broken away leaving behind the bronze version of the pattern. Once each of the 200 bronze panels are forged, they are then welded together to create the finished sculpture.