Zemran

This is one of a series of pieces made from industrial components, inspired by the industrial landscape of factories, oil rigs and so on. A lot of the material came from the scrap yards of British Oxygen Cryogenic Plant in North London. My friends Charles and Nadia Gordon (Nadia Nerina, the ballerina) sponsored me to realise the piece I had in mind, and it was finished in time to be included in the British Sculptors '72 exhibition at the Royal Academy (together with my other piece Quillion).

As sponsors of the work, the Gordons proposed it for the end of the pier, then under construction, of Brighton Marina. When this plan fell through they offered it to the Greater London Council to go on the South Bank. It was sited outside the Queen Elizabeth Hall overlooking the Thames and unveiled in May 1972 by Nadia Nerina.

This work is included in a 2016 list of post war public artworks protected by Historic England with a Grade II listing.