Hugo Brunner unveiled the sculpture A film spool carved in stone forms part of a specially commissioned art work at the Neave Mews building in Abingdon to mark the completion of a major new development on part of the old Regal cinema site.
The sculpture was unveiled by the Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire Hugo Brunner. The 3.5m-high Portland stone sculpture -- known as the 'Abingdon A' -- completes the £12m development started more than two years ago by Lovell, in partnership with Vale of White Horse District Council and the Guinness Trust, the charity behind the Foyer project.
The development comprises 33 new houses and 15 apartments as well as a shop, an office block and the foyer, which provides accommodation, education and job opportunities for people up to the age of 25. The final stage has been the creation of a seating area in the courtyard with the new sculpture as its focal point. Made by artists Philip Bews and Diane Gorvin, the sculpture is flanked by two curving oak benches.
It consists of two limestone shapes rising to create a letter A, with the flowing lines of the space between them representing the River Thames.
The stone A includes four circular reliefs, which refer to the history of the site and of the town. The lowest is an ammonite fossil while the other three reliefs are inspired by engravings on archaeological artefacts found at the site.
A spiral decoration is taken from a bronze Saxon brooch and a film spool is depicted -- a reference to the former Regal cinema.
Glass shell-like forms at the top of each pillar echo details of the town's architecture.
The design also features bronze masks representing Hean and Cilla, the brother and sister who founded the Abbey in Abingdon in Saxon times.
Artist Giles MacDonald was also commissioned to carve inscriptions inspired by the area's history into stone paving at the courtyard entrances and in its centre.
Archaeologists uncovered a number of important finds, including 26 skeletons, part of the Iron Age town's defensive ditch and the remains of a 13th century medieval jug.
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