‘Phoenix sculpture’
East Sheen Primary School, 2011
This commission has been unique for me because I went to East Sheen Primary School many years ago! It has been an amazing experience for me to return as an adult, and now to be running an art project there.
During the 1970s East Sheen Primary was burnt down to the ground, and when it was rebuilt, the Phoenix symbol became the school’s emblem. I was asked to make a sculpture of a Phoenix for the school’s entrance. I worked with Year 5 to create drawings and clay models of what a phoenix may look like. Some of the results can be seen here.
Then I ran clay workshops with children from Reception and Year 2 to make small clay tiles for the mosaic. Year 6 created some beautiful designs for the phoenix’s mosaic patterns. The armature was fabricated, and then rendered, mosaiced and installed by Woody Albrow and myself.