Lazerian creates ‘Seven Sisters’ for Winsford Town Park
Winsford Town Park has recently unveiled eight new ‘salt’ sculptures by Lazerian, called Seven Sisters
Known for its manipulation of established design concepts, Lazerian is a contemporary creative studio based in Manchester. The studio uses digital technology and practical materials to create architectural exhibitions, lighting, furniture and sculptures – and one of its latest projects is a clear representation of this innovative way of working.
Commissioned by Cheshire West and Cheshire Council, Lazerian were asked to develop a series of sculptures for the redevelopment of Winsford Town Park. The studio was asked to consider the town’s defining, industrial past, and this heritage became a natural starting point for the brief of the sculptures.
A century ago in the mining town of Winsford, Cheshire, the skyline was dominated by chimneys and smoke, and was best known for the processing of salt. The chimneys might now be gone, but the town has not forgotten its past, and almost half the salt spread around Britain’s roads is still produced in the small town.
Keeping this in mind when creating the sculptures for the Town Park, Lazerian created a series of eight sculptures called Seven Sisters. The series of sculptures was recently unveiled, and relate directly to both the chimneys – colloquially nicknamed ‘Seven Sisters’ by the population the chimneys loomed over – and the scientific characteristics of salt. When magnified, sodium and chloride (the two chemical elements of salt) display a lattice network of octahedrons.
Lazerian used the network of octahedrons as inspiration for its sculptures, developing them and drawing them out into chimney structures to create dynamic sculptures, which were fabricated into steel rods. Each of the finished sculptures emphasises the negative space inside it, and have been finished in bright white; when viewed from any angle, they seem to constantly move.
The studio was put in touch with the local community when it ran consolations and workshops to help decide the direction of the artwork; through the workshops, Lazerian found that “family is everything to the people of Winsford”. In response, the studio aimed to create a family feeling with the sculptures, resulting in Seven Sisters having three size variations and different densities, becoming eight unique pieces of art.
