Well known locally for his public artwork, sculptor Paul Richardson has unveiled his latest creation Pegasus, the flying horse, in Ravenswood, Ipswich on the new Charles Church development, Latitude.
Specially commissioned by Charles Church Anglia, the two metre high steel sculpture, called 52° North, shows Pegasus not in flight but gently walking forward, wings at his sides having flown on the line of latitude around the globe. The towns and cities named on his wings all share the same latitude as Ipswich, 52° North. It is a telling mixture of familiar places – Ipswich, Amsterdam and Berlin all relatively temperate compared to those not warmed by the north Atlantic drift like Pinsk in Belarus or Saskatoon in Canada.
As a flying horse, the sculpture celebrates the former use of the site as Ipswich airport but Paul wanted it to act as a ‘slowly unfolding’ artwork. At first glance you might simply appreciate the beautiful form of a horse quietly gazing in an oval of grass between the houses. It is only when you get closer that you see this is Pegasus, a horse with wings and can understand the significance it has to this new Charles Church development named Latitude.
Paul is well known in Ipswich for several public art works including the major on the top of the toilet block at Major’s corner, “Major Convenience” and the ballroom dancers at Ipswich Hospital, “Quick Step to Recovery”. He is also the sculptor of Brainstorm in Gainsborough Library, the Foxgrove Band gates in Foxhall Road for which he was awarded an Ipswich Society award for public art and the Angel Gates in St Peters Church on the Waterfront.
Paul said: “I am very proud of it and I like the feeling that it’s positioned in a place where people will just stumble across it and be pleasantly surprised by the fact that it is there.”
Simon Wood, senior technical manager for Charles Church Anglia, said: “Latitude is an extraordinary development, combining cutting-edge design and great use of light and space to create adaptable modern family homes.
“We are delighted with Paul’s sculpture which we feel perfectly complements the thought-provoking and cosmopolitan nature of the Latitude site, referencing as it does, the global locations sharing the same degree of latitude as our development.”
For more information visit www.charleschurch.com