British Museum commissions homeless to create statue.

05 November 2008

St Mungo's, London's largest homeless charity, has been invited to create sculptures, which will be displayed in the British Museum's Great Court to coincide with the exhibition 'Statuephilia: Contemporary Sculptors in the British Museum'.

Designed to draw attention to the issues surrounding homelessness and mental health the installations will be seen alongside one of the greatest sculpture collections in the world. The sculptures will be on display for the 'Statuephilia Late' evening held at the British Museum between 6.30pm and 9pm on the 7th of November.

The installations 'Reclining figure - Kisi- after Dionysus' statue and 'Bringing the issue into sight-You looked' have been designed and made by a group of five St Mungo's residents with assistance from visiting sculptor, Stephen Duncan.

'Statuephilia' pays tribute to the cultural significance of sculpture across the ages and features works by Damien Hirst, Anthony Gormley, Ron Mueck, Marc Quinn and Nobel and Webster. The exhibition has been guest-curated by Waldemar Januszczak and James Fox from ZCZ films, based on an original idea from Channel 4. The exhibition will run until the 25th January 2009 and entry is free.

All of the student artists take part in the Independent Living Programme run by St Mungo's at their hostel in Islington. The course helps homeless people suffering from mental health issues gain the confidence and life skills they need to gain control of their lives.

Course Tutor, Yvette Van Giap, commented

"There has been a longstanding relationship between the British Museum and St Mungo's. We have been carrying out Work and Learning courses at the museum for over ten years. We are extremely proud to have been asked to submit our work

People go to museums to look at works of art they consider beautiful, very often famous works of sculpture are disfigured and yet they are still revered and considered attractive by museum goers; sadly in life people often turn away from disabilities and disfigurements."

St Mungo's resident, Kisi, says

'It was an attractive and exciting prospect to physically be involved with the making of our sculptors, even more so for the sculptors to be exhibited in the British Museum. The sculptors involved in the exhibition are all very accomplished artists, Stephen Duncan included. This was an especially important project to take part in as it was a once in a lifetime opportunity."

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITOR

  • For more information please contact Kimberley Rowley on 0208 762 5645 kimberley.rowley@mungs.org or Lucy Whitford 0208 762 5570 lucy.whitford@mungos.org
  • Photographs available on request
  • The Independent Living Programme is partly funded by Cripplegate
  • St Mungo's support homeless people in their recovery - opening the door to safe housing, drug and alcohol support and physical and mental health care. We provide more help for homeless people in gaining life skills than any other charity - from job training to independent living skills in our 'semi independent' houses.
  • For more information please visit http://www.mungos.org/
  • Stephen Duncan is a member of the Royal Society of British Sculptors
  • 'Statuephilia: Contemporary Sculptors at the British Museum runs until 25th January 2009, admission free. http://www.britishmuseum.org/

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