Liverpool map artwork takes its place inside Museum of Liverpool
An iconic sculpture created with the help of Daily Post readers has been given pride of place in front of the new Museum of Liverpool’s window overlooking the Pier Head.
It took four people to lift each 100kg section of The Liverpool Map on to its plinth in the second-floor People’s Republic gallery.
Made up of six 2m glass panels, the artwork took three hours to install. It was the first time the artists had seen their creation placed upright with daylight shining through the 17 fused layers.
American glass sculptor Jeffrey Sarmiento, who was chosen for the project alongside Belgian artist Inge Panneels in 2008 after a worldwide call for submissions, said he was pleased with the result.
He added: “I had not initially planned on coming up to see it being put in place because I find installs relatively terrifying and one single section of the Liverpool Map is twice as big as any piece I have made before.
“But I am relieved it is up and it looks extremely close to how we envisaged it.”
An initiative spearheaded by arts programme Open Culture, the Map aims to capture a snapshot of Liverpool people’s living memory at a single point in time – during the city’s 800th birthday year of 2007.
Members of the public chose the people and places they wanted to feature in the art work through a Daily Post appeal. The results of the polls were translated into the design, embedding centuries of the city’s heritage and cultural icons into each layer of glass.
Ms Panneels said she hoped those who helped to design the Map will be interested to see the result.
She added: “So many people contributed to it and will want to know where their bit is in the sculpture.”
Visitors to the £72m Museum of Liverpool will be able to see the map when the venue is launched on July 19 – 100 years to the day after the nearby Liver Building opened its doors. It will house more than 6,000 objects dating from the Ice Age to the present day, many which have never been on public display.
Phil Redmond, chairman of National Museums Liverpool and founder of Open Culture, said he expected the Map to become one of the most popular items in the attraction.
He said: “It is a brilliant representation of what we set out to do in Capital of Culture year – create something multi-layered, textured and involving so many people.
“It is interesting to see how its appearance changes with the light. People will have to keep coming back to pick out all the different details.”
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