Public Art in Ipswich

• By Bernard Reynolds
• 1971
• Aluminium, steel amd fibreglass
• Civic Centre Roundabout, Civic Drive
• Gift from B. Reynolds

This large sculpture was moved from the foot of the Civic Centre in 1996 and is now on the Civic Drive roundabout near to the New Wolsey Theatre.

The sculptor explains: "I wanted to create a composition which would have a buoyant character and appear to be riding on the fountain jets, its form to be irregular, to produce changing but balanced profiles from different view-points and to be an assembly of sail and hull motifs the shapes of which would suggest ships and shipping through the ages - a tribute to Ipswich as a port."

All the parts were moulded and finally assembled by the sculptor himself with the assistance of two of his students. The internal structure of steel tubes and aluminium castings was made by Ipswich firms, before the whole thing was sheathed in aluminium/resin reinforced with glassfibre, which was applied and finished by the sculptor.

This sculpture is described by the artist as "an arrangement in 3D of 5 units each based on a shape suggesting sails or hulls. It aims to symbolise ships and shipping of all periods, and therefore Ipswich's long history as a port."

The Ship sculpture won the Sir Otto Beit Medal for Sculpture in 1972.

Born in Norwich in 1915 and trained at Norwich School of Art, Bernard Reynolds met and exhibited with Henry Moore, in 1936-37. From 1949 he organised nine exhibitions of East Anglian Sculpture. He was lecturer in Charge of Three-dimensional Design at Suffolk College until 1980.

Other public art in Ipswich by Bernard Reynolds includes Pylons at Suffolk College, and Triple Mycomorph in Christchurch Park, and Four wall relief works in Sprites Lane.

Other Public Art nearby: Town Centre and Christchurch Park.