Award winning property developer Urban Splash has teamed up with famous sculpture Julian Taylor to create a comeback Superlambanana for Liverpool.
Julian spent three months working on the original Superlambanana at the Matchworks site in Garston, early in 1998 – recreating Taro Chiezo’s original vision for Liverpool. Now, ten years on, he’s back at the original home delivering a new structure for Urban Splash, the vision for which has come from memories of the first sculpture, as Julian explains: “When we were working on the first Superlambanana I can honestly say that the most inspiring stage was when we had completed the armature, just before we put the concrete on.
“At this stage we could see all angles of this fantastic model and fully appreciate its presence. It seemed a shame to cover it up and that’s why this time I was determined to create an original model at its finest stage.”
The Urban Splash model will become a permanent fixture at the Superlambanana’s original Matchworks home. It will be more than four metres high and visible along Speke Road. It is anticipated that the sculpture will be in place at the end of this month, providing there are no interruptions: “Last time we had a lot of fun when we were completing the model. Firstly I built its legs too short, hence we had to add some more concrete to its feet, and secondly we had to hire an enormous crane to hoist the model out of the limited door space,” added Julian.
Even though the sculptor has learnt from his mistakes a decade ago, he still struggled with this model in the initial stages, as he didn’t have access to the original plans and scales: “Back in 1998, we created a small hatch in the Superlambanana’s ‘belly’ so that we could climb in and out of the sculpture whilst we were adding the concrete exterior. When we were completing the model, we thought it would be a great idea to permanently seal the original plans inside as a sort of time capsule – little did we know that we’d need them ten years on!”
Added Lynn Haime, associate director at Urban Splash Work: “Just as the Superlambanana is an Liverpool icon, so is the Matchworks – and that’s why we wanted to put a unique version of the sculpture on the site. The model will become an excellent attraction not only for the people who work at the Matchworks but for those passing the site everyday.”
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