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A Real Birmingham Family

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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.

A Real Birmingham Family Is Gillian Wearing39s family sculpture offensive to fathers Telegraph

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. A small plaque laid on the ground in front of the work describes it.

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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.

A Real Birmingham Family Art bosses defend controversial 39Real Birmingham Family39 sculpture

Wearing said:

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.

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

A Real Birmingham Family A Real Birmingham Family Ikon

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.

A Real Birmingham Family Gillian Wearing and Ikon Gallery search for A Real Birmingham Family

References

A Real Birmingham Family Wikipedia


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