East Yorkshire artist Leonard Brown has made a sculpture of The Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby out of £1m of old bank notes and is exhibiting her at Beverley Art Gallery - after taking inspiration from a woman he saw in Hull city centre. Faye Preston reports.
SHE is Britain’s most famous spinster, but thanks to a Hull artist she need never be lonely again. For Leonard Brown’s sculpture of Eleanor Rigby – made out of £1m of old banknotes – is attracting scores of Beatles-lovers and art-lovers from across the area.
Displayed at Beverley Art Gallery, Eleanor Rigby The Million Pound Bag Lady, is a bold statement about poverty and wealth and she is inspired not only by the genius songwriting of Sir Paul McCartney, but by a chance sighting of an elderly lady he saw hobbling hunchbacked through Hull’s city centre almost a year ago.
Leonard, 70, said: “I saw an old lady carrying all these bags in the city centre and I thought it would make a wonderful picture. It was so sad to see and it touched me. I thought about where she was going and what she was thinking.
“I went back and drew her and as I did I got thinking about the most famous bag lady there is – Eleanor Rigby. Every town has one, you see them everywhere you go. Old ladies with more bags than they can carry, dawdling along. I hope this speaks to everyone.”
Standing about 4ft tall, her cast is made from wire and wood and her chest cavity is stuffed with £300,000 of old bank notes alone. The rest of the dosh carefully tones her face with peach-coloured “tenners” as well as the darker creases of her coat and bags.
Alongside the sculpture read the words: “I cried because I had no shoes until I saw a man who had no feet.” It is a saying he was brought up with as a child in inner-city Liverpool and one he feels is more relevant today than ever before.
He said: “Everywhere you go people are crying about what they don’t have. This sculpture is a statement about wealth and poverty and the fact people want so much when they have so much already.”
It took Leonard months to convince the Bank of England to hand over the money. Not one to be fobbed off, he went straight to the top and called the Governor first. After being passed down the chain and proving his need for the cash was genuine, he finally bagged an appointment to pick up the notes.
“I can imagine the girl’s face when she hears this Scouser on the end of the phone asking for £1m,” said Leonard. Sitting in the grand foyer of the Bank of England, a security guard rolled out a trolly load of black bin liners stuffed with the notes – to the jaw-dropped expressions of onlookers.
“No one knew the money was shredded,” said Leonard. “Everyone was staring at me and I just pushed it out of the door and started loading up the boot of my car. I didn’t know how much a million pounds of shredded notes would be. It still makes me laugh thinking about it.”
Leonard has since sent photographs of Eleanor to the Bank of England, who replied telling him it was “absolutely fantastic”.
He is also waiting with crossed fingers for a response from Sir McCartney himself and dreams of her being displayed at the Tate Liverpool. But until then, Eleanor Rigby will take centre stage at Beverley’s gallery – and is already drawing in a crowd.
Nial Adams, museum manager, feels Eleanor is at home among the display of Fredrick Elwell’s works because both provide a type of social commentary.
He said: “This is a searing critique of modern Britain. It is a striking, interesting sculpture with a very serious idea behind it. Although the material is old, used bank notes, it is tactile and has warmth. It makes you want to give her a cuddle.”
Eleanor Rigby The Million Pound Bag Lady will be displayed until Thursday, October 17.
Paul McCartney's churchyard inspiration for Eleanor Rigby
RELEASED on August 5, 1966, Paul McCartney’s heartbreaking lyrics, “Eleanor Rigby died in the church and was buried along with her name; nobody came” strikes a chord that many may recognise as fear. To this day, scores of Beatles fans visit St Peter’s Church’s neat yard in the Liverpool district of Woolton where the real Eleanor Rigby lies.
She is now widely thought of to be the subconscious inspiration behind the song that spent four weeks at number one in the UK chart in 1966. Strangely, it was here John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time.
It is a short distance from Lennon’s childhood home on Menlove Avenue and he would frequently play in the graveyard after singing in the choir. But though many people believe this is the song’s heroine’s final resting place, details about her life still remain scarce.
Original article from the Hull Daily Mail
No comments:
Post a Comment