A Spire - Leeds, UK - Abstract Public Sculptures on Waymarking.com

The sculpture is in the shape of an old mill chimney, but represents the shift in production in Britain from heavy industry and mining, to a state of almost complete immaterial industry – entertainment, services, education.

The name Aspire was inspired by the fact that there are two nearby churches, on either side of the library and the structure is aping their spires.

A nearby information board has the following text.

PUBLIC ART ON CAMPUS
SIMON FUJIWARA (b.1982)
A SPIRE

2015, cast jesmonite

The British-Japanese artist Fujiwara grew up in Cornwall, then studied Architecture at
the University of Cambridge and Fine Art in Frankfurt. His first major exhibition was at
Tate St Ives in 2012. His approach to art-making is quasi-anthropological. This is his first
public art commission, for the main entrance of the Laidlaw Library.

A Spire is a totem that evokes the industries on which the University and city of Leeds
are built. It is a soaring visual timeline — a skyward archaeology that connects the past
and the present. Tall and cylindrical in form, A Spire is the third spire between two
church buildings on Woodhouse Lane. From the pulverised coal integrated at the base,
symbolising the coal on which Leeds's prosperity was built, to the intertwined natural and
technological elements symbolising the current digital era, in which organic and man-
made materials merge, A Spire creates a unique new presence at the top of Woodhouse
Lane, capturing the ever-changing vertical landscape of the city.

The sculpture was physically created by the Mike Smith Studio.
"We created wooden formers for the 9 panels which make up the structure, then lined them with clay and pressed bricks into this to make the pattern required.

Then we added in combinations of gravel, coal, steel dust and copper to make the bands of colour and sprayed Jesmonite into the moulds, adding in an aluminium frame which gave strength to the panels and provided us with a system to hang each panel from the steelwork.

Once demoulded and with the clay cleaned off the Jesmonite we then treated the surfaces to further colour the steel and copper and patinate it.

The steelwork was welded up and galvanised, and finally we went on site in Leeds to install the work.

We used a spider crane to lift each piece and put it into place, erecting the steelwork first and then hanging and setting each panel into place. An elevated work platform was used to reach the upper levels and allow us to bolt each panel into place, and finally to add the green roof which caps the chimney." link

Title: A Spire Artist: Simon Fujiwara Media (materials) used: Cast Jesmonite Location (specific park, transit center, library, etc.): Outside Laidlaw library Date of creation or placement: 2015

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