Marion Smith, Sculptor

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Panmure Passage

Materials: Norden granite

Created: 2009

Client: The Unicorn Property Group and Dundee City Council

H: 240cm W: 180cm D: 615cm

Categories: Commissions, Works in Progress

Sited on the location of the slipway where the RRS Discovery was launched in 1901. Each cut out taken from the eleven upright slabs relates to a cross-section of the hull of the vessel. The title of the sculpture acknowledges Panmure Shipyards where the vessel was built by the Dundee Shipbuilders Company.

The granite was imported as one twenty-seven tonne block, this was crucial to the idea, because when sliced the slabs were labelled so that in the final sculpture the sequence that they had been cut in was followed, this means the rough external shape of the block is still evident. The form of the sculpture relates to the vessel being locked in ice between 1902 and 1904 during Scott’s first expedition to the Antarctic.

View through the sculpture Panmure Passage, you can see the holes cut through the granite are different shapes and in the background you can see the Tay and the bottom of legs of the Tay road bridge
Forlkift forks lifting large slab of granite with hole cut out of it using slings, it's part of a sculpture that's being installed, in the background is the Tay road bridge. Another slab lies flat on the ground, it has a triangular shaped hole cut through it.
Detail looking through 11 slabs of granite with shapes cut out of them, this one starts with a bowl shape and ends with a triangle, photo taken at night so only the shapes are lit up.
Photo taken at night shows eleven vertical slabs of granite with holes relating to the RRS Discovery's hull, you can see that the slabs have irregular edges
Detail looking through eleven hole cut through vertical slabs of granite. Its taken at night so it's only the shapes that are lit up.
Night time photo of Panmure Passage lit up, the quality of the lighting is white. The background shows lighting on the Tay road bridge, there are lamposts and the light from them is very warm, to the left of the image it is reflected in the water and appears as a series of short vertical lines. In the far distance are the lights from Newport.
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