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Notes
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This sculpture has affinities with both Egyptian obelisks and the anthropomorphic structure of Native American totem poles. Its five surmounted portrait heads, each at a different stage of abstraction, are based on Sir Francis Chantrey's neo-classical bust of the Birmingham scientist and inventor James Watt, which is now in the City Museum and Art Gallery. The successive reduction and increasing fine finish visible in the piled-up heads allude to the machines that Watt developed late in life for the making of larger or smaller copies of sculpture, each being the same proportion to the one above. James Watt (1736–1819) is chiefly remembered as the inventor of the separate condenser – the greatest single improvement ever made to the steam engine.
Title
Wattilisk
Date
1988
Medium
Indian granite
Measurements
H 430 x W 70 x D 70 cm
Accession number
B4_RA_S031
Acquisition method
commissioned by Birmingham City Council
Work type
Sculpture
Owner
Birmingham City Council
Custodian
Birmingham City Council
Work status
extant
Unveiling date
16th March 1988
