The
site for Fiona Banner's new public art project Tornado, for which a
Tornado fighter plane is being transformed into a large bell, has been
announced.
The
bell will be sited on Hillgate Quay next to the River Tyne in
Gateshead. Hillgate Quay is next to the historic Swing Bridge below the
Tyne Bridge. Tornado's close proximity to water makes reference to
Banner's memories of the bell her grandfather salvaged from a war ship.
"I remember the first military object I got excited about. My
Grandfather's flat in Birkenhead was full of war memorabilia. When I was
very young, and when he wasn't looking, I used to climb up onto his
chair and ring the big bell he had salvaged from a war ship. The feeling
of power that came from it was incredible - the sound and the space
around it was way bigger than me.”
The decommissioned Tornado has reached its next stage of
transformation, with the fragmented plane smelted into 246 aluminium
ingots.
