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The seven-meter (23 ft) high artwork, showing
an actress poised to leap into action, crossed the waters of
Plymouth Sound and landed at the city's Millbay Docks, dwarfing
the hard-hatted crewmen below who did not even made it up to her
knee.
The statue was hoisted onto a flatbed lorry and crowds cheered
as it was driven at walking pace to its spot outside the Theatre
Royal Plymouth.
The figure, titled "Messenger", was created by 44-year-old
sculptor Joseph Hillier as part of a wider regeneration project
for the southwest English city.
Hillier, who was born in the neighboring county of Cornwall,
said he was working with a group of actors when he saw one
strike the pose during a pause in a fight scene.
"If you walk around London, or any major city, there is lots of
statuary of men on horseback, of men on podiums. This woman is
very much on the ground, with a very dynamic pose, lots of
diagonal lines, ready to take on that history."
The statue was cast in a foundry in Wales and driven, in parts,
270 miles (435 km) to Plymouth Naval Base where it was
assembled. It had to make the last leg of the journey by sea as
it was too tall to get under motorway bridges.
The theater, which commissioned it, said it wanted to create a
landmark that would embody the creativity in Plymouth and in the
theater and "create a renewed pride in the city and sense of
optimism in its future".
(Writing by Andrew Heavens, Editing by William Maclean)
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