A public art concept has been launched to chase the dream of seeing Peter Pan take flight in a towering Angus roadside sculpture.
In an effort to make a talking point similar to Gateshead’s Angel of the North and the Broxden Grouse by Perth, a local architect has revealed his ambition to have favourites from J. M. Barrie’s most famous story soar above the A90, a few miles from the author’s home town of Kirriemuir.
Gary Sinclair’s idea was triggered by last year’s celebrations to mark the 150th anniversary of the Angus playwright’s birth and he hopes to harness support to help get the plan off the ground.
A rocky outcrop on the central island of a rainwater basin at the A90 Kirriemuir junction struck the architect as an ideal spot to provide the launch pad for Peter Pan to lead the Darling children on their first flight.
“Just imagine the sight of four figures zooming up from the water’s edge into the night sky as they take their first ‘jump on the wind’s back,'” Gary told The Courier.
His initial drawings envisage four slightly larger than life-size sculptures of Peter Pan, Wendy, Michael and John, each at the pinnacle of a twisting strand 10-15 metres above the road to make the sculpture visible from all approaches.
“Selected lighting of the figures would allow each character to appear to float in the night sky over the junction during the hours of darkness,” he added. “The issue of attracting the passing traveller and the casual visitor from the A90 into towns such as Kirriemuir lies at the heart of retaining and developing local businesses and services, as the presence of Kirriemuir at its shared junction with Forfar is limited to the standard brown ‘local services and main attractions’ signage.Presence”It was a discussion with a local businessman which led me on to possible options to improve the presence of the town at the junction and I hope Kirriemuir’s Gateway to the Glens community will recognise the possibilities for this intriguing project and lend their support to the project.
“Clearly the final form of the installation would be fully developed as the project evolves, but I hope the initial idea may be a catalyst that will result in the design and installation of something capturing the ‘Second to the right, and straight on till morning’ moment of the fairytale’s first flight, as well as providing a suitably spectacular highlight to the Gateway to the Glens from the A90.”
He believes experience of community projects such as the Westmuir Community Woodland and Kirriemuir’s all-weather pitch project will help the scheme.
“I appreciate that the project will require significant commitment over a period of time, from a range of private individuals businesses, community groups and local government agencies, to drive it forward and secure funding for the scheme,” he said.
“This has started with a single spark of an idea, so let’s get the drive and enthusiasm working again to deliver another spirit-raising project in these times of financial doom and gloom.
“I hope to be able to enlist the early assistance of interested parties from both the local business, arts community and local government.”
Interested parties can contact Gary at www.garysinclairarchitecture.com