Open Outcry (The LIFFE Trader)

Project Details

Dimensions: A life-and-a-quarter sized figure (approx 2.4m high)

Commissioned: for the inauguration of the LIFFE for dedication by HM The Queen

Date: 1994

Open Outcry (The LIFFE Trader)

After a pleasant city lunch one day, I was approached by Michael Jenkins, the then CEO of LIFFE, the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange.

I was duly commissioned to make a bronze sculpture of an Open Outcry* trader and a large engraved slate plaque for the proposed opening of the LIFFE exchange by HM The Queen when it moved from The Stock Exchange building to Cannon Bridge.

The trader was to be based on my own body and we spent a very long night taking body moulds in the sculpture studios of Alec Ryman in Marlow. When it came to taking a head cast from me, I was immersed section by section and finally my ears were closed off and then my nose and finally, with a single straw to breathe through, my mouth was covered. Inside my plaster coffin, as the heat built up with the exothermic reaction of the setting material, I began to feel extremely claustrophobic. I banged on the floor with my hand and suddenly the cast was broken away and I could once again see and hear and most important of all, breathe! It was not at all a nice experience and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

Finally, the bronze sculpture was produced and patinated in the Burleighfield foundry and installed by craning it up through second floor windows at Cannon Bridge. The day for the opening arrived in 1992 and HM The Queen duly arrived and, on a raised dais high above the trading floor, she unveiled our plaque, the LIFFE exchange was open and in its own home.

Not long after we produced another large bronze sculpture, ‘The Trading Globe’, which was a gift from The Stock Exchange to LIFFE to enhance the ground floor entrance of their new home. It was unveiled on Black Wednesday 16^th September 1992 and that is yet another story!

    *Trading was conducted by ‘open outcry’, where traders meet on the trading floor (in what is called ‘the pit’) to conduct trades.   There were 26 ‘pits’ at the peak of Open Outcry at the LIFFE but the last three ‘pits’ closed in November 2000, when all LIFFE trading became entirely electronic.

Les Danseurs

Project Details

Dimensions (cm): 40 x 25 x 15 (w x h x d)

Weight: 17.1kg

Date: 1994

Les Danseurs

Inspired, to be sure by Barbara Hepworth who my founder, Eric Gibbard, at the Burleighfield Foundry spoke of so often. In the foreword to my first exhibition in Waterstones Gallery in Jermyn Street, he wrote: “Sitting late into the night with Barbara Hepworth and discussing purity of line she would say to me… “before you check my sculpture visually, handle it and see if it feels correct”.  I must agree that the tactile aspect of bronze sculpture and indeed almost any sculpture is really important.  For me, the feel of a bronze is just as much part of the finished work as its appearance.

My inspiration has been drawn from Rodin to Moore; from Degas to Picasso; from Giacometti to Lipchitz and Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson who together with Henry Moore are set deep in my consciousness.

This bronze sculpture celebrates the dance with life I am still enjoying at the age of 77!

The Channel Tunnel

Project Details

Commissioned: for the opening and inauguration by HM The Queen and President François Mitterand

Date: 1994

The Channel Tunnel

What a huge privilege to be commissioned by EUROTUNNEL to produce a design and then a bronze sculpture for the Opening of the Channel Tunnel in 1994 .

I had met Alistair Morton, the then CEO of Eurotunnel, at a medical dinner at the Berkeley Hotel in 1992 held by the Chelsea Clinical Society of which I am honoured to a member. I was subsequently invited to discuss the opening of the tunnel, scheduled for 1994, with those who were tasked with organising this great and historical occasion.

The plan was to have a major sculpture for the inauguration, but over time the ideas became less and less heroic as the company was short of funding and in due time a diminutive design was chosen. We were asked to produce this bronze sculpture with a granite base and a cast bronze plaque with words to celebrate the occasion.

On May 6th 1994, with the sculpture duly installed and covered with a large box complete with electric doors, we were invited, with about 3000 others, to Folkestone to watch HM The Queen arrive with President Mitterand. Seated together in the Royal Daimler they emerged from one of the carriages of Le Shuttle train, having just inaugurated the opening at the French terminal. They had a superb bronze there designed by a Russian ballerina! The French had definitely outplayed us!

No matter, everyone was invited to an amazing lunch; a Eurotunnel train was actually driven into the marquee and then we were all re-positioned to be seated in a semi circle of stands around our sculpture. We held our breath and were very excited.

HM The Queen made a speech to which President Mitterand graciously replied and they joined hands to press a switch which opened the electric doors. Our sculpture appeared, the crowds applauded and the deed was done. The UK was officially joined by land to the Continent of Europe.

A sketch of the original design with the signed Eurotunnel approval.

Original Design approval from Eurotunnel

Piece of Chalk

This piece of chalk, encased in plastic, came from the middle of the tunnel on the very day that the English and French broke through to meet in the middle of La Manche or The English Channel. My then wife Auriol,  and I were being shown the inner workings of the drilling and were 10 miles in under the ocean!

EMILY

Project Details

Dimensions: 19cm x 18cm x 36cm (w x h x d)

Weight: 3.8kg

Date: 1988

No. in Edition: 8

Emily

An artist’s proof of the maquette of an engaging and quizzical little figure, to cast in bronze as an edition of 8.  This work was cast by the famous Burleighfield Foundry in 1988.

Somehow the patination on the bronze seems to work particularly well for her.  The creation of a patina is something of a black art.  Science is used in the chemicals and the mechanical polishing, but the result is pretty well intangible and yet magical.  Foundries guard the secrets of their patination techniques like Coca Cola guard their recipe!

When I first had this bronze cast, and it was seen by various visiting children, several of them thought that it was ‘ET’,  the character from the Stephen Spielberg film, which I thought was rather sweet.

CONTEMPLATION

Project Details

Dimensions: 18cm x 34cm x 31cm (w x h x d)

Weight: 10.4kg

Date: 1990

Contemplation

When I was given my very first show at Waterman’s Gallery in Jermyn Street in 1990, the owners said I needed to find my own style and signature.  Now, in 2015, I still haven’t really done that, which dealers find a problem.  To get anywhere my work needs to be recognisable as mine!

This bronze was one attempt at identity I think.  With influences from Rodin to Moore; from Giacometti to Hepworth; from Degas to Picasso, I really was in a sea of input which only seemed to appear in various guises as I made yet another work.

Contemplation has one arm and one leg.  It is quite lyrical and flows and people seem to like the work so please… you choose where you think the influence has come from.  My wife, Grace, likes the piece as well which is always a bonus!

The bronze has, for me, an unusual patination, much paler than I usually use, but I really like it and am very pleased with the outcome.

The work is very definitely a Lawson Baker!