A Real Birmingham Family

The artwork, with the Library of Birmingham (left) and Baskerville House in the background

A Real Birmingham Family is a public artwork and sculpture by Gillian Wearing, cast in bronze, and erected in Centenary Square, outside the Library of Birmingham, England, on 30 October 2014.[1]

It depicts two local sisters, each single mothers, Roma and Emma Jones, with their two children; Roma's son Kyan and Emma's son Shaye. Emma is depicted as pregnant with a second son, Isaac, who was born before the sculpture was unveiled.[1][2] A small plaque laid on the ground in front of the work describes it.

In a process begun in 2011, and coordinated by the city's Ikon Gallery, nominations for a "real" local family to model for the sculpture were invited. The Joneses were selected from a shortlist, by an independent panel, in August 2013.[2][3]

Wearing said:[4]

I really liked how Roma and Emma Jones spoke of their closeness as sisters and how they supported each other. It seemed a very strong bond, one of friendship and family, and the sculpture puts across that connectedness between them. A nuclear family is one reality but it is one of many and this work celebrates the idea that what constitutes a family should not be fixed.

The £100,000 cost of the work was covered by a combination of public money and private donations.[1] The casting was carried out in China.[1] The project follows Wearing's 2008 work, A Typical Trentino Family.[2]

In November 2014 shortly after being unveiled new Fathers for justice activist Bobby Smith covered the statue with a white sheet and pictures of his own 2 daughters. [5][6][7]

See also

References

External links

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Coordinates: 52°28′45″N 1°54′29″W / 52.479113°N 1.908175°W / 52.479113; -1.908175

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