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FORGING AHEAD: Clay cast of woman and child statue

Artists have begun the final casting on what could be the first statue of a black woman to be displayed publicly in England.

The three-metre (10-foot) sculpture of an African-Caribbean woman holding a child was unveiled in clay last week in London, on its way to being finally cast in bronze. The sculpture, called The Bronze Woman, will be completed later this spring and placed in Stockwell Gardens.

It is being created to celebrate the contribution of the African-Caribbean community to London and the 200th anniversary of the end of the transatlantic slave trade.

Started by the late internationally-renowned sculptor Ian Walters, who created the statute of Nelson Mandela, The Bronze Woman is based on a poem of the same name by Cecile Nobrega, a writer from south London. Walters completed a two-foot high maquette of The Bronze Woman (pictured) before he died in 2006.

It is now being completed by Aleix Barbat, a final year sculpture student at Heatherley’s School of Fine Art and winner of the Tiranti Prize from the Society of Portrait Sculptors. The project is being supported by social enterprise group, Presentation, and the writer Nobriega.

Published: 08 February 2008
Issue: 1306

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