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Foundations laid for Crucible at Gloucester Cathedral
Foundations laid for Crucible at Gloucester Cathedral
25th July 2010
With just over six weeks to go before Crucible opens at Gloucester
Cathedral, the Cathedral works team is preparing the ground for the
arrival of over 75 works of art by some of Britain's leading sculptors.
Together, they will constitute a who's who of contemporary British
sculpture, from the "New Bronze Age" sculptors of the 1950s to current
household names such as Damien Hirst and Antony Gormley.
A reinforced concrete plinth has been cast by the main entrance to the
Cathedral in preparation for the centre-piece of the exhibition, Sir
Eduardo Paolozzi's monumental sculpture of Vulcan.
The Cathedral stonemasons are preparing stone plinths for some of the
works. The plinths will be recycled after the show and used on the
Cathedral building.
Twenty months of planning are coming to fruition and the sense of
excitement is building. The Cathedral architect and maintenance teams
have had over a dozen site visits with the exhibition curators from
Pangolin and the installation team from Charles Russell Transport to
plan the delivery and placement of the works.
They have had to consider the load bearing of the Cathedral floor,
measure the width of the doors and even the ceiling heights. The Nave,
East End, Crypt, Cloisters, Garth and College Green will form the
exhibition space.
The combined weight of all the pieces in the exhibition comes to 25
tons. The works are coming from all over the British Isles, from
Scotland to Cornwall and from Cork, Ireland.
Just two of the logistical challenges the exhibition will bring are:
Vulcan
The monumental sculpture by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi weighs 5.5 tons and
stands 25 feet high.
Meniscus
A water sculpture by William Pye weighing 3.5 tons will be placed in the
North Transept. It is a brand new work specially made for the Crucible
exhibition.
The exhibition installation will begin immediately after the Three
Choirs Festival take-down, with most exhibits arriving in the week
beginning 23 August. It will take an entire week to deliver and position
all 76 works.
Charles Russell Transport which has its headquarters in Cheltenham is
the No 1 agency in Britain for transporting large artworks. They work
for Sotheby's among other major players and travel all over the world
taking artwork to various exhibitions. "Crucible will be great for
Gloucester," said Charles Russell, director of the company "it will make
Gloucester a mini City of Culture."
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