Linda Brothwell
Bronze
Elegantly twisting across the front of our building, and visible as you approach Bristol Beacon from the centre of the city, is Linda Brothwell’s beautiful bronze sculpture Motion Efficiency Study.
Evolving from the original balustrade of The Lantern that traversed the front exterior of our building, Brothwell’s sculpture transforms into a flowing ribbon of glistening metal that dances across our threshold.
Fascinated by capturing sound in movement, Brothwell has jumped into our history to find stimulus for her art. Sounds and actions that have happened around our building have inspired her. Such as the moment when Elsie Howey hid in our organ to shout “Votes for Women” in 1909, the performers who waited outside a 2nd story external door to come on stage, and Ella Fitzgerald’s performance in the hall in 1961.
Brothwell draws on her training in metalwork and combines her interests in heritage, movement in response to sound and how objects hold memory to create Motion Efficiency Study – her first permanent UK public commission.
Motion Efficiency Study
Linda Brothwell, 2023
Location: The Lantern exterior
Medium: Bronze
Commissioned by Bristol City Council for Bristol Beacon. Curated and produced by Field Art Projects.
About the artist
Linda Brothwell
I wanted to look at the history of the building, what’s happened around it … and create an elegant and joyful artwork.”
Linda Brothwell, 2023
Brothwell trained in Goldsmithing, Silversmithing, Metalwork and Jewellery. Her ‘Acts of Care’ series initiated a repair movement in the arts and earned recognition through international gallery support, the Jerwood Makers Open, and a place on the Design of the Year shortlist.
In 2019 she travelled to Japan as a Churchill Fellow researching ‘The Lifecycle of Tools in Japanese Culture’. Her testimony to the value of craft skills and tools was celebrated in an award-winning co-produced BBC4 documentary Handmade in Hull.
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