Daedalus: Careful What You Wish For

After five years and several setbacks, Peter and his team have finally completed and installed his largest public sculpture to date.

after Daedalus, whom the gods had granted wings to escape the

labyrinth at Knossos. He is also famous for warning his son Icarus

not to fly too near the sun with his wings stuck on with wax. Part

of the site is being developed for industry (National Grid), also

housing and in one corner, a public park.

Nigel Searle

Having been at art school in Portsmouth during the 60’s doing a sculpture “degree”, I had then started in a small way, making a living with metalwork, teaching myself with books and mistakes.

I had ambitions to make sculpture, perhaps big public art commissions, but became very content with my growing love of blacksmithing. Fifty years later, the National Grid has a £100k project for a six metre sculpture on a five metre mount at Solent Airport, a very high profile public space, just 10 miles from work – fame at last!

I have always taken on jobs not knowing how to do things. Being self-taught, it’s what you must do. Now though, I have the best possible team of four to make it happen. Me (and I’ve been to college) John Duffield, Patrick Mannerings, Nigel Searle and Ricky Delaney.

The metalwork for this job was exciting, rewarding, fulfilling, and satisfying, but the paperwork and administration – well it’s so dark I’m not sure you really want to know, and there were five years of it. I would do it again because I may now know what to expect. Anyway, to the process. Excitement having generated so many ideas, we turned to our lifesaver, Nigel, for our drawing to fit the bill. This was to be an image symbolising the site, formerly a first world war airfield and still in use. It was originally named HMS