DISHFORTH MISSING MAN
Client - Stonewater Housing
This sculpture was designed for Dishforth in North Yorkshire, a village next to a WW2 airbase. It is based on the missing man formation, an aerial salute to fallen comrades, flown by the RAF, the USAF and Royal Canadian Air Force.
There is an Armstrong Whitney bomber plane represented on the top of the sculpture. The letters used in the inscription were designed specifically for this project and are based on the angles found on the plane.
I collaborated with the poet Olivia Mulligan who used the results of writing workshops held in the two local schools to compose a poem for the project. Dishforth retains a strong connection to its history, the poem references this but also looks forward with positivity to the future.
There are maple leaves falling from the tail of the plane that intermingle with the words of the poem to represent the Canadian airmen who lost their lives flying from RAF Dishforth.
THE STORY OF HOME
If you listen Carefully
You can hear today's birdsong
Carried be yesterdays breeze
Blowing the maple leaves
That have fallen
Whispering
The story of Home
Carved into stone
Our history is alive
Beginning with an ending
The precise moment
Never known
Never known
But never forgotten
Never-ending with a beginning
Forever sending us hope
The story of Home
If you listen Carefully
You can hear today's birdsong
Carried be yesterdays breeze
Blowing the maple leaves
That have fallen
Whispering
The story of Home
By Olivia Mulligan