Father Sky / Uranus

Artist: Zachary Eastwood-Bloom (b.1980)
Date made: 2017
Medium: Bronze
On loan from Pangolin London courtesy of the artist
Location: University Square. To find this sculpture, you can either use its what three words location or use the campus digital map.

Father Sky/Uranus by Zachary Eastwood-Bloom was lent to the University to celebrate the Commonwealth Games 2022. It is an amalgamation of a male human form and an abstracted blurred shape, and what the viewer perceives changes depending on where they stand. To create the sculpture, a 3D digital model of a classical sculpture of the Greek god Uranus was digitally distorted to combine with satellite images of the planet of the same name. Through the intersection of art and science, it explores how humans have attempted to understand the universe from the molecular to the planetary through religion, mythology and geometry.

Close crop of bronze sculpture Father Sky/Uranus by Zachary Eastwood-Bloom from side showing abstract pointed shapes angle

Bronze sculpture Father Sky/Uranus by Zachary Eastwood-Bloom in context with Staff House behind

Bronze sculpture Father Sky/Uranus by Zachary Eastwood-Bloom in context seating area in University Square behind

Close crop of upper torso include arms, chest and head of bronze sculpture Father Sky/Uranus by Zachary Eastwood-Bloom showing human angle

Father Sky/Uranus, Zachary Eastwood Bloom

Visual description

This is a human-sized bronze sculpture which stands upon a low, square concrete plinth. On top of the concrete plinth is a black metal base which the sculpture rises from. The sculpture is brown-bronze in colour, with areas of lighter gold-bronze which reflect in direct sunlight and has a dull, matte finish. The sculpture has a different appearance depending upon your viewing position. Viewed from the side, from the path which runs nearest to it, the sculpture appears to be a condensed wave or frequency. Points of the wave stick out in spikes towards the back of the sculpture. The wave is most condensed in the middle section and is narrowest at its top. Viewed from the path which runs adjacent to the front of the sculpture, the sculpture has the appearance of a male figure in profile. Its right arm is outstretched to the side, its left arm is lifted and bent at the elbow and its right leg is lifted at the knee as though it is running. Between these two viewing positions the sculpture seems to melt from the recognisably human figure to the abstract shape.