Joe Orton – Statue Proposal

Joe Orton Sculpture Proposal

Artist: Jim Whelan

As a life-long artist I have experimented and worked in all mediums, but sculpture is the medium I love the most. That feeling of being able to walk around the work, 360 degrees, touch it and physically interact with it, is almost without equal.

Sculpture is a more immediate art form because our eyes see in 3D all the time and cannot be fooled! For me, it must look just like life, there are no short cuts.

I am an avid reader of books. As a young art student, I read Joe Orton’s book, “ Prick up your ears” and admired his unique humour and his individual, alternative take on life. His untimely death was a great loss to the creative industries.

I have a similar outsiders view on life, to Joe’s subversive nature. Often as artists we are outsiders looking in.

I admire his confidence in himself, at a time when many others feared to be themselves.
I love that he was fiercely proud of his background and the streets where he was raised, unapologetic and unafraid to speak his mind.

This is true for me also. To immortalise Joe would be an absolute honour and also a fantastic opportunity. I have been lucky enough to be able to work on a monumental scale, which I love and was recently able to do so in my last public commission. I created a larger than life-size full bronze figure of an exhausted World War 1 Tommy, sat reflecting on the horrors of war, having a brief respite, before getting back up to fight again.

The sculpture is called Futility, due to our towns links with the war poet Wilfred Owen, who was a former student at a local school, the Birkenhead Institute. The Birkenhead Institute Old Boys raised the money for it. The sculpture commemorates the brave 88 lads, from the institute, who lost their lives, of which Owen, of course, was one.

Whilst it was lovely to have the Royal patronage of Harry and Meghan, who officially unveiled it, the most touching part for me was when some primary aged students from a school for the blind, came to feel the tactile sculpture and they loved it!
The sculpture has been well received by everyone and is loved and protected by the locals who live near to it.

I am humbled by this and am so proud to have achieved success with this. It was an honour and a privilege, particularly being such a huge fan of Wilfred Owens incredible poetry. I feel that this experience and my other commissions demonstrate that I am able to work with many different groups, through each process, to produce a wonderful art form, on time and on budget.

Through previous projects, I have close contacts with a wonderful foundry, who have an excellent facility for me to work, in Liverpool.
Castle Foundry specialise in large scale bronze sculpture and have decades of experience of producing phenomenal pieces.

The staff have real integrity and show professionalism at every stage.
I hope I get the opportunity to be seriously considered for this commission. It would certainly be a huge honour.

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