\n The entire journey will be undertaken by a Renfrewshire logistics company, Rhino, something Paisley-native Stoddart is pleased to see. \u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n But, fittingly for a god who also represents tricksters, all is not as it seems. Instead of the usual bronze reserved for such important art pieces, the statue is made of material used to make much more mundane items. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n The statue will take pride of place over the city of Dallas(Image: Lindsay McQuarrie)\n<\/p>\n
\n Just as Hermes is known as the god with wings on his feet, his statue had to be light enough for his delicate perch above Dallas to take his weight. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n And despite his shiny lustre, all that glitters is not gold. Professor Stoddart explained: \u201cHermes is the God of deceit and illusion, and there\u2019s a little bit of that here. He\u2019s made from glass-reinforced polymer, the same stuff a canoe is made from.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cHe had to be light enough to stand on the gilded dome in Dallas . And to have him covered in gold would have cost \u00a321,000 \u2013 and it would have been too delicate to survive the journey. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cSo we opted to use a \u00a3200 pot of gold paint instead.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Sandy Stoddart in his studio at the University of the West of Scotland in Paisley(Image: Jamie Simpson)\n<\/p>\n
\n Professor Stoddart is best known for his civic monuments, including 10-foot (3.0\u00a0m) bronze statues of\u00a0David Hume\u00a0and\u00a0Adam Smith,\u00a0and others of\u00a0James Clerk Maxwell,\u00a0William Henry Playfair\u00a0and\u00a0John Witherspoon.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n An opponent of modernism in art, he said that he relished the chance to take part in the Dallas project, which is firmly rooted in the traditionalist and monumental style of art and architecture. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Read More:\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: \u201cFor the past ten years I have been working with some architects in America, where they are building a new quarter in the city of Dallas in the traditionalist style. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n “And they want \u00a0some monumental sculpture for it. That\u2019s not a style for everyone, but for me \u2013 it\u2019s the highest calling man can reach.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n He said that making a sculpture of a god who represented orators, but also illusion and trickery, for the debating chamber in Dallas, was also and interesting choice given the fervent around political discourse in the US. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n He added:\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m not a political sculptor. But there are some queer parallels that come up.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A year in the making, the statue of the Greek God Hermes is one of several works Prof…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-172459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}