The winner of the inaugural Liverpool Sculpture Prize has been announced

Alan Dunn has been revealed as the winner of the inaugural Liverpool Sculpture Prize. His work, Ascension, takes a component from a famous public artwork in Liverpool and repurposes it to talk about loneliness in society.

Glasgow-born artist Alan Dunn has been based in the Liverpool City Region since 1995, the year he co-created the sculpture RAY + JULIE with Brigitte Jurack. The sculpture, consisting of two chairs, was originally commissioned by the Furniture Resource Center. The original RAY + JULIE artwork has been around for 27 years.

No one ever knew who RAY + JULIE were, but in this new work they are separated, RAY at the plinth and JULIE left behind on London Road. It will be the first time in 27 years that they will be apart and remind us of the peace and support that faith brings to the lonely and forgotten.

Ascension sees RAY installed at Plinth on Liverpool Parish Church for twelve months.

Alan Dunn says:

“After creating RAY + JULIE, which was only intended to last six months until the road was resurfaced, it was embraced by the people of Liverpool in such a beautiful way. Over the course of 27 years they have been the subject of poems, stories, photographs, a play at the Everyman Theatre, a spoken word installation in St Georges Hall and were once described by The Guardian as one of the ten best sculptures UK secrets. In creating this new work for Liverpool Parish Church, using RAY, we are also creating another work, JULIE (on our own) on London Road.”

Alan’s work was chosen by a panel of judges from Liverpool’s art world and civic and business communities, from submissions from artists across the UK.

The Liverpool Sculpture Prize, created and managed by Liverpool BID Company and Liverpool Parish Church, is open to any sculptor working and living in the UK.

The work will be displayed at Liverpool Parish Church on the plinth facing Chapel Street.

The jury included; Rector of Liverpool Revd Canon Dr Crispin Pailing MBE of Liverpool Parish Church, The Venerable Pete Spiers, Archdeacon of Knowsley and Sefton in the Diocese of Liverpool, Lesley Woodbridge Public Art Officer at Liverpool City Council, Artist Faith Bebbington, Curator at DuoVision James Lawler, Double Negative Art Critic and Writer Laura Robertson, Taylor Wessing’s Saleem Fazal, Bluecoat Curator Adam Smythe, Julie Johnson, Liverpool BID Company Culture and Commerce Chair and Business Operations Partner at Morecrofts .

Julie Johnson, from Liverpool BID Company says:

“This was a very competitive field, with some incredibly talented and visionary artists submitting their work for the award. The work we have chosen is, we believe, a fitting one for the first winner of the Liverpool Sculpture Prize, as it tells a rich story and is part of the fabric of the city’s folklore.”

The Rector of Liverpool Revd Canon Dr Crispin Pailing MBE is from Liverpool Parish Church,

“Our ambition with the Liverpool Sculpture Prize has been to create curiosity and excitement in public and contemporary art and I believe this work will do just that. We know that exhibition opportunities for artists, particularly sculptors, are increasingly few and far between, particularly in the public domain, and this award is designed to provide real support and ambition to promote artists in need by him”.

Find out more about the Liverpool Scultpure Prize here.

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