The Anonymous Widower

An Art Installation In Front Of Moorgate Station

Today, a new sculpture was installed in front of the new entrance to Moorgate station.

I took a few pictures.

Note.

1. The sculpture, which is in bronze and entitled Manifold (Major Third) 5:4, is by Conrad Shawcross, who I talked about briefly in Job Done – I’ve Now Had My First Covid-19 Vaccination.
2. Conrad is the guy in red t-shirt, who can be seen in several images.
3. I’ve never seen a large sculpture installed before and everything went smoothly!

I have some thoughts.

More On The Sculpture

This page on Art On The Underground is entitled Manifold (Major Third) 5:4, where this description is given.

Manifold (Major Third) 5:4 by British artist Conrad Shawcross RA will be found outside the western entrance to the Elizabeth line station at Liverpool Street later this year. The artwork is a vast bronze sculpture representing a chord falling into silence extrapolated from observations of a Victorian pendulum-driven drawing machine known as a harmonograph, which was instrumental in the birth of the science of synaesthesia. This sculpture is the physical incarnation of the mathematics within a chord.

Note that I am of Conrad’s father’s generation and had a large Meccano set, like many of that generation. I must have built four or five Meccanographs, which were a harmonograph, built out of Meccano.

Bronze

The sculpture is in bronze, which is mainly an alloy of copper and tin.

My uncle; Leslie was an artist, who had won a scholarship to the Slade before the Great War, although he earned his living as an engineer. I do have two of his drawings, of my mother and his wife.

But he was also a capable sculptor, and sculpted and cast a bronze of a Hanoverian horse, which would probably be, the family possession, that C and myself would have loved to have owned. It is now owned by his granddaughter, who was also one of our bridesmaids, when we got married in 1968.

I also have another link to bronze. My father was a letterpress printer and his largest customers was a company called Enfield Rolling Mills, who rolled copper and other non-ferrous metals including bronze into various shapes.

I don’t know whether they invented the process. but sometime around 1960,Enfield Rolling Mills started to continuous cast bronze. I seem to remember that their bronze tubes were used in the original UK nuclear power stations.

Because of my father’s long-established friendship with the owner of Enfield Rolling Mills, I used to earn money there for my studies.

3D Printing

Bronze, other metals and even concrete can now be 3D printed.

I suspect we’ll see 3D printed sculptures appearing with greater regularity.

Other Materials

These pictures show Conrad Shawcross’s sculpture outside the Crick Institute.

It appears to be made out of weathered steel, which is often seen used in railway bridges and other structures.

In Denmark Hill Station – 4th September 2021, I talk about how the roof at Denmark Hill station is made out of steel covered with solar panels.

Could outdoor sculptures be made with steel covered in solar panels?

June 17, 2023 Posted by AnonW | World | 3D Printing, Art, Conrad Shawcross, Denmark Hill Station, Enfield Rolling Mills, Meccano, Moorgate Station, Sculpture | 3 Comments