Kenny Munro, hosted by Maggie Le May @ Regent Street

This is an historic work from a previous collaboration with artists Jim Munro and David Wilkinson.

Title of work - Hunting for Diana

Creating sculpture is often considered a solitary affair! - but often as not it is a collaboration involving many folk; a team effort. Many of my projects over the years have required such combined enterprise. Whether working with a bronze foundry, a landscape artist or for that matter running a project as part of an educational opportunity to help raise awareness. In fact I would argue that the process of creating the sculpture can be as significant as the end product. That view has inspired my use of video with projects in Australia and in Bengal. (2000 ~ 2005)

The sculpture proposed for Portobello expresses another kind of collaboration which links to the restoration of a historic figure of Diana the Huntress in the Gardens of Blair Atholl Estate. The original figure circa 19c was struck by a falling tree and was transformed into a ‘Venus de Milo of the North’! (Sadly she lost her head as well) and remained like that for over 50 years. The restoration of the figure involved my father Jim (1925-1990) whose expertise enabled a version of the head, as displayed, to be grafted onto the torso at Blair Atholl back in the 1980’s.

The pillar, which supports the head at Portobello, is also significant as it, relates to another collaboration. Around the same period I worked with David Wilkinson who created a series of murals and sculpture bollards for Leith and this is a cast from one of his sculpture pillars.

www.kennymunrosculpture.com