By kind permission of Electric Egg
Exotic Cones St Mark’s Garden (2000)
A pair of sculptures carved in Kilkenny limestone based in St Mark’s Garden, Lincoln.
These sculptures are based on The Banksia Cone; the seed pod of the Banksia, discovered by Joseph Banks in Australia. These exotic wildflowers are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes and fruiting ‘cones’ and heads.
The name Banksia honours the English botanist Sir Joseph Banks, who collected the first Banksia specimens in 1770, during James Cook’s first expedition (1768 – 1771).
Joseph Banks has several connections with Lincolnshire and Lincoln: The Sir Joseph Banks Conservatory at The Lawn, Lincoln, which has a tropical hot house with samples of vegetation representing many of his voyages including his visit to Australia; a window in Lincoln Cathedral in his honour; remembered also in Boston as Recorder for the town, where his portrait hangs in the Guildhall Museum and in Horncastle at the Sir Joseph Banks Centre, where he was the town’s Lord of the Manor.
About the Artist
Peter Randall-Page (1954 –)
Peter Randall-Page studied sculpture at Bath Academy of Art from 1973 – 1977. Since then he has become internationally recognised for his sculpture, drawings and prints. He has exhibited widely and undertaken many commissions, with his public sculptures found in many urban and rural locations throughout the UK and in public and private collections both nationally and internationally, including several works in The Tate Gallery.
His work is inspired by the study of organic form and growth patterns; ‘geometry is the theme on which nature plays her infi nite variations, fundamental mathematical principle become a kind of pattern book from which nature constructs the most complex and sophisticated structures.’ In 1999, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from the University of Plymouth and from 2002 – 2005 was an Associate Research Fellow at Dartington College of Arts. www.peterrandall-page.com/about/biography
By kind permission of Electric Egg