£1 Oswestry sculpture made using Midas touch
A sculpture made from shiny, new one pound coins has been created with the Midas touch in mind – but this is no money-making scheme as you might expect.
Following in the footsteps of the spoon gorilla and the knife angel, the glittering statue of King Midas is the latest statue to be created at the British Ironwork Centre, near Oswestry.
Before the greedy king could be made, the centre had to talk to the Royal Mint to ensure it was happy with the scheme.
Clive Knowles, chairman of the centre said: “We we told we had to ensure the coins were not defaced or cut up in any way.”
The Myth of King Midas sculpture depicts the King’s gift of turning everything he touches to gold – a wish that turns out to be a curse when he eventually turns his beloved daughter to gold.
Theatrical designer and set maker, Debbie Rees Deacon, was commissioned to create the sculpture from 1,000 coins and project managing the design. “It is the most unusual and most costly singular object I have worked on to date,” she said.
The face of the statue was designed by Andrew Blake, a theatrical prosthetics and masks specialist with Mormid Masks, based in Kent, and a friend of Debbie Rees Deacon.
The first visitors to see statue were those who attended The Ironwork Centre Halloween Spooktacular.
Visitors to the attraction have become used to seeing a collection of the weird and wonderful.
Spoon bender Uri Geller commissioned the sculpture of a gorilla made from thousands of donated spoons and flew into the Ironwork Centre to unveil it.
The most poignant statue has been the Knife Angel, which was created from tens of thousands of blades confiscated by police or handed in during a nationwide amnesty. Craftsman Alfie Bradley turned the knives into a mesmerising statue of an angel looking down at the world with outstretched hands.
Some of the blades have been engraved with messages from police chiefs and families who have lost loved ones as a result of knife crime.
A new guns amnesty is now underway with the Ironwork Centre hoping to use decommissioned weapons to create a plinth for a second anti-weapons statue.
A sculpture park at the Ironwork Centre also includes statues of wildlife, from giraffes and elephants to a massive spider, which will take pride of place in the Halloween event.
Mr Knowles has campaigned for the knife angel to be put on the fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square.
The Mayor of London’s Office has revealed the 26ft sculpture made of knives will not feature on the iconic plinth despite calls from more than 35,000 people.
But Mr Knowles said he was “ashamed and embarrassed” Sadiq Khan would not make an exception for the monument.
The Mayor’s office said the fourth plinth was reserved for contemporary works of art that had been specially commissioned and selected by the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group on behalf of the Mayor of London.
