Artist: Alan Williams
Year: 2024
Commission / type: Commissioned by ICMM in December 2023; completed January 2024
Dimensions: H 110 × W 45 × D 75 cm
Display / installation: Freestanding on a black-glass base
Current location / status: Location currently unverified
Future Remembrance was commissioned by ICMM following a project centred on Ite, Peru. Alan’s proposal was to begin by gathering stories and conversations with workers, board members and local people, allowing the subject of the artwork to emerge collectively. A flamingo was chosen after discussion of the area’s environmental recovery and its importance as flamingo habitat.
Alan named the work Future Remembrance. The returning flamingo represents regeneration after environmental damage: steel, copper and aluminium refer to materials mined in the region, while water-hyssop flowers symbolise memory and healing. A black-glass base evokes the dead water of the past while reflecting the bird above it.
ICMM used the sculpture in communications around its Nature Position Statement. Alan has not yet verified its present location. Dark-background photographs should credit RJM Photography; Alan owns the other supplied image rights.
Garden tools, scythes and shears form much of the feather plumage. Bearing casings, architectural salvage and mechanical salvage form the body; large spanners and tool wrenches form the legs; industrial pipe and found objects form the neck. The beak was forged from sheet steel and the head includes a motorbike carburettor.
The sculpture was painted pink and orange and then lacquered. The bright colour and flowers were intended to give the work a celebratory quality alongside its environmental meaning.
Boy with Chicken
