during the 3 years of planning for the 'peacemonuments' project, their arose the possibility of the choice of object, I was offered the opportunity to use the Mig 21 and rolls royce merlin engine,  –I intend my sculptures to identify notions of the classicism of consumption, ostentation and material value centred upon a cultural and political identity. The sculpture has a classical form made and is made from the used and useless, discarded relics of the cold war . The value of our war machines that we covet and protect is brought into question by the work. –The work will also consider and define the phenomenon of the estranged values of the 20C culture. Modernist culture and its successors have become more inaccessible, self referential and remote, they have found commercial favour sometimes precisely for these reasons. –It is through the juxtaposition of image and material which informs and empowers what we see in the sculpture. I hope it will make us re-evaluate and dare to reject complacency.

for the public presenation I decided that I would make a model of how I wanted the work to be seen, I used the container I had for the rolls royce merlin engine, cleaned it out, painted it blue and made a model crane which would simulate the sculpture suspended from the gib just a few centimetres above the moving water. The model has enabled the community to understand the meaning of my work and it is now under discussion with all concerned.