MYTHOLOGY and folklore come together in this year's Liverpool Sculpture Prize winner.
Skalli is a seated figure, part fish, part human, drawn from a folklore that feels as though it has always existed around the Mersey. Created by artist Patric Rogers, the work will remain on the plinth at Liverpool Parish Church for 12 months.
Rooted in its proximity to the Mersey, this work draws on the river a site of movement, exchange and memory. The water carries arrivals and departures, shaping both the City and its sense of identity.
Managed by Liverpool Business Improvement District and Liverpool Parish Church, the Liverpool Sculpture Prize sees a new work installed each year on the plinth at St Nicholas Church. The work stays in place for 12 months.
Open to any sculptor working in the UK, the Liverpool Sculpture Prize is one of the last remaining open, annual sculpture prizes in the UK. The prize to the winning artist, alongside the exhibition of the work, is £2500.
The winning artwork is selected by a judging panel which includes, Rector of Liverpool Fr Philip Anderson, Curator at DuoVision James Lawler, Art critic and writer from the Double Negative Laura Robertson, James Minshull from Taylor Wessing, Ben Stephenson, current winner of Liverpool Sculpture Prize, Joanna Rowlands from Liverpool Experience Campus.
Patric Rogers is a Liverpool-born, Wirral based artist, working across sculpture, film and interdisciplinary forms. He is an award-winning filmmaker, a sculptor, painter, photographer, animator, writer and musician. His more recent body of work explores how history, folklore, and mythology shape belonging, and how these stories persist through people and environments. He is a founding member of Material Matters, a Merseyside-based collective working across artistic and curatorial projects.
Patric Rogers says:- “Public art has the ability to add a layer of storytelling to a city’s streets, and what I wanted to explore with Skalli is the idea of how true that story telling is. The act of creating a piece of artwork to reflect a story gives it weight and heft, but it also becomes part of the story's presumption of accuracy - ‘it must be true, there is an artwork of it’. Skalli is a myth, a folklore, but is it real? It plays with the idea of a tale about a creature from the river, interwoven in our sense of identity. I am delighted to be the winner of the Liverpool Sculpture Prize. Sculpture is an artform that’s rooted in accessibility for the viewer, but rarely is for the artist. Skalli incorporates technology to make it a more affordable piece to create and install. If we do see sculpture in our streets and city squares as part of the fabric of our shared identity, we should look at how we are making it possible for artists from every work of life to add to that tapestry”.
Katie Bentley from Liverpool Business Improvement District says:- “This is a really eye-catching work and it stood out amongst the other entries. It is a reflection of the incredible artistic talent that now, in the third year of Liverpool Sculpture prize, we continue to see such a rich vein of work being submitted. Art plays such a vital role in our public realm, not simply animating our streets but as a place to gather our stories. This is what Skalli is, it’s an artwork that could be real, could be part of an urban legend, and that’s such a playful aspect to it. I am looking forward to seeing people’s reactions to it”.
The Revd Philip Anderson, Rector of Liverpool says:- "Liverpool Parish Church is the City's original public space, and we're delighted so many people have engaged each year with the changing artwork displayed on our plinth - encounters that help people see the world differently, and often bring a smile of recognition. This year's commission is in the best traditions of the prize - the work of a skilful sculptor, Patric Rogers, speaking to the City's maritime heritage, and inviting Liverpool to ponder, with the mysterious, strangely familiar, Skalli."
