Sculpture Vulture Update 2024
Hello, sculpture vultures. How the devil are you? I’ve been thinking for ages that I need to drop back into your feeds and give you a little update, so that’s what this is. It’s been two years since my last episode. Feels like two minutes to me, but incredibly, it really is that long, and what have I been up to? You might ask. Well, as I mentioned in last season at the end of it, I had a bit of a curveball sent my way and actually felt a bit like when you play snakes and ladders and you suddenly find yourself hurtling down the board to your utter surprise, when you were immediately before at the top of a ladder, and then suddenly you hit the floor with a bump and you have to sort of, roll up your sleeves and start trudging back up again.
So, what have I been doing while I’ve been trudging? Well, there’s always my conservation business, first and foremost, and it has been going really strong. We’ve had the best couple of years for a long time, actually, and done some really fun projects. If anyone’s interested, take a look at our website, www.antiquebronze.co.uk. You can have a look at the portfolio page and see all the lovely sculptures we’ve been working on. So, we’ve done some work for Tate, worked on the Barbara Hepworth at St. Ives, even had the King and Queen Consort come to see them afterwards, thank you very much. And I think they approved, which was all good. And I’ve worked for the British Museum, which is a first for me actually. They’re one of the clients I haven’t worked with, just mainly because I do contemporary sculpture, so obviously, not huge amounts of contemporary sculpture at the British Museum, but they have got a really wonderful Igor Mitoraj statue. I’ve worked on other Igor Mitoraj statues, and I just adore them. I mean, they’re totally up my street, fabulous fusion of, like, classical bronze with contemporary.
But nice to work for such a nice client and in such a nice environment actually. And been scrambling all over, up and down, the wonderful Adrian Jones sculpture of Quadriga, which you probably do know even if you can’t bring it to mind immediately. It’s the one at the top of Wellington Arch, which is on Hyde Park Corner. My gosh, that is a beautiful sculpture. And it’s, you know, needed some conservation checking, so I looked at it inch by inch because it’s so wonderful. And I thoroughly recommend you take a look at that statue if you’re ever driving around London because it’s actually a real beauty. And what else?
The Princess Diana statue at Kensington Palace, lovely sculpture. Fabulous to work on a commemorative piece for her. I think she’s long overdue to have a decent memorial statue of her. I really wanted to speak to Ian Rank-Broadley. I did ask him to come on the show, but unfortunately, he was far too busy to speak to the likes of me. But you never know, I’m hoping he might get a window one of these days where he would, you know, chat to us about that sculpture.
Quadriga by Adrian Jones, Hyde Park Corner. Above Wellington Arch
But I’ve also managed to carry on with some writing, just a small project, really. For ages, I’ve wanted to write a non-fiction book about how to care for sculpture. It’s for all those owners of sculpture who ask their foundries what to do to care for them. And then promptly forget all the good advice that they’re given by their foundries, and it’s a guide really to sculptural maintenance, the routines, the what to do, what not to do, all those kinds of questions I’m always getting asked. And that’s actually been the perfect project to slip in, because alongside all the family stuff that I’ve been going through, I found that my brain really isn’t capable of doing deep work, the kind of things that you need to do for fiction, and I’m gonna say actually create any truly creative work where you have to draw on your own depths.
I found that when I was anxious and worried about things, I just couldn’t get to that place that you need to go to. Grief actually resulted in the same thing. When I lost my dad, I completely lost my ability to go to that place: I was wiped out. I couldn’t actually even read fiction for a while, it’s kind of like the pain pulls up that drawbridge that takes you to that place and completely cut me off.
But I did find that non-fiction was perfect intermediary sort of project. I was able to dip in and out of that. And so my book “Wax On Wax Off: How To Care For Bronze Sculpture” is out now in all the usual places and can be ordered at bookshops. So do pick up a copy. I have had the wonderful week of looking at the hardback that has just come out and enjoying all the different formats that there are of the book. And it’s always great fun for an author to actually, you know, stand with the copies in your own hands and, sort of, see the thing that you’ve had in your head for ages manifest.
Wax On Wax Off can be ordered in bookshops and bought at all online retailers
There isn’t an audiobook as yet, but I’m considering narrating one. It’d be a good idea to push myself, I think, but, you know, another thing to add to the to-do list. But actually, another lovely thing that has come out of the podcast that I wanted to tell you about from Seasons 1 and 2 was quite unexpected. It helped to inspire a character in a best-selling novel, believe it or not. Yes, it truly did. Paige Toon is a very dear friend of mine, and she is an incredibly well-known author of romance novels. You know, I mean, she is in all the big bookshops. She’s the top of her league. She’s published by Penguin and, you know, kind of has rivaled the likes of Michelle Obama as a best seller. She really is a heavyweight in that category. And of course, being my friend, by default, she has to at least pretend to love sculpture, and I’m sure most of my friends really just do it to humour me, but Paige actually took it one step further and she listened to the podcast and after that went to speak to a couple of the authors that I had interviewed.
If you remember the interviews with Hazel Reeves and also Laury Dizengremel, and she had a final time talking to them. And her latest novel is set on the gorgeous Cornwall coast and is called “Seven Summers.” And it’s an epic love story about a sculptress, and it’s already a “Sunday Times” bestseller. Can you believe it? Now, I told you that sculpture inspires, and that’s exactly what It has done to Paige. I’m thrilled with the result and her wonderful book. I hope you’ll all dash out and grab a copy. Her wonderful imagination was able to create a brilliant character and fascinating storyline, and I’m sure you won’t be able to stop turning the pages.
So, what are my plans for the podcast going forward? Well, returning to the snakes and ladders analogy, I’ve made it back to the same spot on the board. But maybe you’d say by hook or by crook, but now that I survey the board, I find that either the game has moved on a little, or perhaps it’s just that I have. I am keen to carry on with the podcast because I’m constantly discovering wonderful things about sculpture and brilliant people who are involved with it, and I want to share that wonder. But I also find that I have had another idea for a novel, it has just been a little seed, but it’s starting to flower, and I’m keen to explore it now. I’m constantly seeking my next fix of sculpture because it’s always part of my books and I think what I’ll be doing is bringing you along on that journey with me.
So, when I do have someone fantastic to speak to or a topic that I think you’ll get something out of, I’m gonna drop in an episode into your feed. Though it won’t necessarily be in a seasonal format, I’m sure it’ll be enough to keep you interested and keep me interested and keep us all in touch.
The Princess Diana Monument by Ian Rank-Broadley at Kensington Palace
I thought I’d leave you for now with a thought about a piece of news that you might have seen back in March. Richard Serra sadly died this year from pneumonia, age 85. Very good age. And my second novel, “Rust Upon My Soul,” was inspired by one of his sculptures. I’m sure you know his wonderful work are very iconic, but I will put up an image for you on the blog and on Instagram. But they are colossal steel shavings that he is famous for which entice you to sort of walk their perimeter. And they kind of wend their way in and out of profiles.
So, to me, a metals conservator, I’m just in awe of them. I think they’re magnificent. These huge rusty surfaces and just the way that the steel tips towards you, it’s kind of almost drunk, and then away from you again. And it makes you feel as if the material must actually be soft though, in fact, it’s the absolute opposite. To me, it’s a thing of joy anyone who really loves metal. And particularly, I love the way that you can walk through some of the sculptures kind of be inside them, almost a part of them. The way they kind of take you somewhere it particularly lit my imagination which is what then inspired me to go on and write that book.
But even if you aren’t a fan of his pieces per se, I think there’s one aspect of Serra’s life story which I have found particularly inspiring to me, he’s a creative that has had many highs and lows in his career. A couple worth mentioning is Tilted Arc in 1981, which was placed in New York City’s Federal Plaza, and Clara Clara in 1983, which was created for Paris. It was commissioned by the Pompidou Centre, but then actually the sculpture was too huge to put in the Pompidou Centre, so they placed it at the Louvre in the Tuileries Gardens. I mean, can you imagine how ecstatic you’d be to get a commission like that as a sculptor? To be told that your work was going to grace New York Plaza. And, you know, then somewhere like outside the Louvre, I mean, two of the most wonderful sites arguably in the world.
Now, both of these works that were commissioned were absolutely hated by the public. They were called hideous, monstrosities. The one that was placed in the Louvre, they said it ruined all the classical proportions of the building, and there was such a significant clamour about both of them that they were moved. I mean, Tilted Arc was so hated that it was dismantled and put into storage. And Clara Clara was sort of…moved to the equivalent of the back office. It remained in Paris but sent to like a small park in the 13th arrondissement. And when there, people took out their feelings upon it – all the typical ways people do with sculpture, lots of graffiti and scratching, etc.
Now, I can’t imagine what you would suffer when you saw how people reacted to your work the way that people did so publicly with those sculptures. That level of them being loathed must have been something…it must have broken his heart, I imagine. As a creative like the response to your work is possibly the worst part of doing this. I mean, even if you’ve got the most immensely thick skin and you really believe in your work, there’s that just sort of awful cold chill of what people will think. I mean, the criticism can be immensely destructive. It can stop you from creating in your tracks.
People love to hate things as well. I can get 20 great reviews of one of my books and then one negative one, and yet it’s that one that sears me. Whatever those words were that stay with me and I think over them rather than all the positive ones which, you know, it’s madness really. But the bottom line is creative work is never going to be everyone’s cup of tea. But when I look at Serra and the kind of criticism he took during his career, I think that would fell most people. And yet, I see he didn’t allow it to do that. His voice in those works if anything it’s become stronger. And over time, people have come to understand it better and appreciate it more.
And definitely for me, he’s somebody that I think of when I’m having a low moment. He’s someone that makes me think, “Yeah, keep putting one foot in front of the other. Keep writing another word. Keep putting more content on a page.” As long as it’s authentic, people will come to understand it. Some people will appreciate it.
Sculpture by Richard Serra ©
So, I’m going to be back in your feeds later this year, I promise. Please DM me on Instagram or tweet me on Twitter. On Instagram, I’m @lucybranch_antiquebronze. Oh, it’s not Twitter anymore, it’s X. So, I’m @lucyBranch11 on X. I mean, I really like Twitter. I loved Twitter before X. You know, I’m finding my way, trying to treat it as something different than what it used to be.
But please tell me about your favourite public sculptures. Tell me about works that have inspired your life. I love hearing about things like that. It’s actually been the best part of doing the podcast for me. So many people have contacted me. I feel like I’ve made friends. I can’t keep in touch with everyone. I do reply, but I can’t remain in touch with everyone. But I do think about you all who have made the effort to write to me, and I really do appreciate it. So long for now. I’ll speak to you again soon.
If you’re looking for a new book, please consider one of my novels about the dark side of the art world where sculpture is always at the heart of the story. You can get them on the show website, on the usual online retailers, or even better, keep your local library alive, ask for them in there. Thank you for joining me today. Sculpture Vulture has been brought to you by Antique Bronze.