The sculpture, adequately titled ‘The Gulls’ arrived in Worcester’s Cathedral Square on January 18 and will remain in the city until February 13.
Made of unwanted junk that would have been sent to a landfill, such as fruit nets, plastic strips, and flip flops, the sculpture is the latest artwork launched by The Worcester Plinth. Each gull took approximately two months to make.
Sarah Dukes, who created the 5ft high and 8ft long artwork, said: “I’ve created these giant gulls from junk. Old wire, hose, fruit nets, plastic strips, flip flops, and ribbon. A reminder of the amount of waste we generate, woven together as a symbol of our human interconnectedness. Gulls are remarkable birds, able to adapt and change to new surroundings. People’s views vary wildly about them in Worcester, love them, hate them, they are here and residents of Worcester.”
When ‘The Gulls’ leave Cathedral Square, they will pop up at three other undisclosed locations around the city. The Worcester Plinth is a unique travelling public art display unit which moves around the city every 28 days to obvious and less obvious locations.
Oliver Carpenter, a member of The Worcester Plinth team, said: “Gulls are controversial. You must get a lot of stories. Shoot the gulls and so on. The whole should there, shouldn’t there, be gulls in Worcester question, and why do we hate gulls as opposed to other birds?
“So there’s this controversy around gulls, and of course, the thing that makes the gulls come here is the fact that we drop our food litter. So we’re bringing the gulls here and then objecting to the gulls. I just think there’s lots of stuff behind it really and then it’s made of rubbish, which is great.”
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