The Memorial To Fishermen, St James' Square, Grimsby. Image courtesy of David Urquhart
The Memorial To the Fishermen of Grimsby, St James’ Square
‘In 2002 after an extensive media campaign I was awarded the commission to create a lasting Memorial to the Fishermen of Grimsby. This was a huge honour for me as like many in Grimsby my family were part of that heritage industry.
‘I wanted to capture the precarious nature of the work of a fishermen so I set out to balance the sculpture on a knife edge. The trawlerman’s heels braced, his distant gaze t’ward home and hearth he longed for, his frozen hands wrestling in a tug of war with the brutal power of the sea.’
As part of my research for the sculpture I went out fishing on the Jubilee Quest and worked as part of the crew. This is serioiusly hard graft and highly skilled work that these men do. It was poetry in motion watching them work and with so little sleep.
The Memorial stands as a symbol of hope, strength and determination, and is testament to the hardworking people of the town and their courage in the face of adversity. It is a reminder of the importance of the fishing culture to the town and a tribute to those who have gone out on the open waters to bring in their catch. The Memorial is for the Fishermen of Grimsby, those tragically lost in pursuit of the catch, and is a poignant reminder of the town’s heritage and the courage of its people.’ - C S
The finished clay
The bronze cast ready for patination
Detail
Valley - Havelock Academy
In 1983 I’d just left art college and I was working with household paint, found objects, one of my influences at the time was New York artist Keith Haring. At that time albeit briefly I was a graffiti artist in this style. Looking back this particular painting it was classic existential imagery, in the background the mountains. It was then many years later trekking through a remote valley in New Zealand making sketches of the mountain intersections that I recalled that image.
Embarking on a new body of work in 2010 I picked up that image and took it on a three dimensional journey.
The David Ross Foundation commissioned this work in 2010, now installed at Havelock Academy, Grimsby. In Cor-ten steel, it is sculpture that demands you walk around it and explore the relationships between the cone forms, much like trekking a valley carved by a river you are drawn upwards to see what is around the corner in a motion of intrigue intrinsic in gaining knowledge.
