In 2016, John was approached by Doone Silver Kerr Architects with the idea of creating a piece of sculpture for 103 Colmore Row, a landmark office building being developed in the Colmore Conservation Area of Birmingham, by Sterling Property Ventures and Tristan Capital Partners. John of course was absolutely delighted and despite mobility becoming increasingly problematical, he was excited to travel down to London by train from Wolverhampton for the first meetings at Doone Silver Kerr’s offices. Sadly, John passed away during the prototyping of ‘Equinox’ but George Legendre who was already involved in collaborating with John on the commission, was able to see the project through to its completion.
John Silver, Director, at Doone Silver Kerr Architects was one of the contributors to the Mathematical Form book, and years before the commission, in his essay entitled ‘Appreciation’ he wrote:
‘In these sculptures the interaction of surface and volume, light and shadow, stimulate our virtual senses, creating objects of contemplation. Despite their fragile modelled form, these are fundamentally objects of intense power.
It would be quite fantastic to liberate John’s work on a scale where everybody could interact with, explore and appreciate it. There are no intellectual boundaries here; this is natural, pure and empathetic sculpture for almost any environment. It attracts us because it feels right, and strangely familiar, yet is also has the power to intrigue, entertain, and challenge our perceptions indefinitely.’
Equinox certainly achieves the transition from fragile model to an incredibly powerful piece of public art; realised in solid steel tubes and laser cut metal sheets, weighing 1.5 tonnes and measuring seven metres from tip-to-tip. John could not have wished for a more iconic site for one of his sculptures to be realised on a large scale, than Birmingham’s tallest new office building, and it is a wonderful legacy of his work in a city with which he had such a close affiliation.
