Author Archives: Chris Butler
JOURNEY
18th March 2019 2.00am I stand in the dark and deserted dockyard. The night is still but fresh. My hi-vis jacket helps protect me from the cold and drizzle. On the quayside a giant pontoon barge lies ready, it’s cargo lashed to the rusted and battered steel deck. A bronze towering seven metres tall. Ten […]
ON THE CORNER
“The Waiting” is a dramatic new work by Anna Gillespie. The seven lifesize seated figures form the latest installation on the Jamaica Street plinth, an outdoor exhibition space curated by the foundry, close to our workshop in the centre of the Baltic Triangle, Liverpool’s fast growing creative hub. Anna made the work especially for the […]
RELATIONSHIPS
Our work is often destined for a particular place. Permanently fixed and part of the landscape. So it is refreshing to see old works in new settings. And settings don’t come much more magnificent than SALISBURY CATHEDRAL. Every summer the cathedral hosts a major sculpture show and this year the vast interior, cloisters and greens are inhabited by […]
CREATE A STORY
The VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM is a magical place. A place to discover things in. A place to get lost in. Housing one of the worlds greatest collections of craftsmanship, the place is filled with mankind’s treasures. It is one of my favourite and most often visited museums. Today is different. I have come to see […]
LIGHTNING STRIKE…BORN FROM A STORM
Back in October 1987 “The Great Storm” hit the south of England. What measure of nature’s ferocity qualifies a storm as “The Great”? Many will remember. Britain’s worst storm for 300 years was a devastating and for some a fatal night. My google search informed me of some incredible facts. That night an estimated 15 […]
INGOTS INTO ART
This month the foundry celebrates twenty five years of casting. Who knows how many sculptures we’ve made in quarter of a century; no one’s counting but is has to be thousands. How many tons of bronze, melted and poured? Countless ingots fed into the furnace to be transformed into art. There is an intensity to […]
THERE ARE SUPERHEROES
There are heroes and then there are superheroes. Arriving in the USA to install the statue of former slave, turned abolitionist, turned statesman Frederick Douglass, I soon came to understand that Andrew Edwards statue had truly encapsulated such a man. http://www.cornoviiedwards.com It is rare for a British artist to receive a commission for a civic […]
FAR FROM HOME
All projects, however monumental, come and go; sometimes there’s hardly time to catch your breath. No sooner are things underway than the deadline looms and the race is on; dominating my waking hours. Sometimes the odd sleepless night. Intense but short lived. A sprint. With work completed and work installed it’s over. Closure; and with closure comes […]
A FORGOTTEN HISTORY
Ever time I spot the sign for Droitwich, on countless journeys up and down the M5, the same thought comes to mind. The sculpture we made all those years ago that stands in the centre of the town. Today, on the spur of the moment, I follow the sign and make the mere five miles […]
SEARCHING FOR ACORNS IN WOOD GREEN
We took the Piccadilly line, north to Wood Green and emerged from the underground into the unknown. Disoriented and trying to get my bearings, I spot our work next to the news stand. As often happens, I immediately feel connected to this unfamiliar place. They are bollards, but with a difference. Commissioned by Haringey Council […]
Castle Fine Arts Foundry 