ELEANOR RIGBY SCULPTURE MADE OF BANKNOTES

The Museum of Liverpool is to display a sculpture of one of the city’s most well-known characters, made famous by the Beatles song bearing her name, Eleanor Rigby.

Created by Liverpool-born artist and sculptor Leonard J Brown, the 5ft 2 inch sculpture has been crafted out of £1million worth of old bank notes; a stark contrast when compared to the ‘bag lady’ who inspired the work, and died without a penny to her name.

Just as the lyrics go - ‘all the lonely people’ - Leonard’s juxtaposition of the poverty-stricken Eleanor Rigby and her rebirth using old money, demonstrates the relationship between wealth and poverty, which Leonard hopes will pass on a positive message to visitors.

A note accompanying the sculpture says ‘I cried because I had no shoes, until I saw a man who had no feet’, a saying which Leonard was often reminded of as a youngster growing up in Liverpool and believes is particularly poignant and still relevant today.

Leonard said: “The sculpture serves to show people that money isn’t the only way to make you happy, or indeed ‘buy you love’ and we should all be thankful for what we have. There are people in every town and city like Eleanor Rigby who live a lonely life, and whose only worldly goods are kept in the bags that they carry.”

Born in New Henderson Street off Park Road in Liverpool in the 1940s, Leonard recalls Post-War Liverpool Waterfront as a derelict area following heavy bombing of the city. As a child he and his friends spent their time playing in the area, running in and out of dock buildings and across the Hartley Bridge, which joins Mann Island and the Albert Dock next to the Museum of Liverpool.

Leonard continues: “To have this sculpture on display here in my home city, and on the site of the place I used to play as a young boy, is absolutely phenomenal and a dream come true. I left the city in 1966 to pursue a career as a singer in the Channel Islands, but I still have the accent and will always be a proud Liverpudlian.”

In order to get the high quantity of bank notes he needed to create his Eleanor Rigby sculpture, Leonard had to go straight to the top and started off trying to contact the Governor of the Bank of England to grant his request for £1million bank notes.

After months of discussion, he was invited to London to pick up the notes, which were given to him in the form of shredded pellets. £300,000 worth of the notes make up some of the materials that fill the chest cavity, and the rest of the pellets were then mashed and moulded over a steel frame bound in wire, to create the figure.

Leonard was inspired to create the sculpture after seeing an old lady – much like Eleanor Rigby - carrying a large number of bags through the centre of Hull where he now lives. The sight touched him and stirred his imagination of where she might have been going and what she struggles she might be facing.

The sculpture took six months to complete and was finished in August 2013. It will be displayed in the Atrium of the Museum of Liverpool until January 2015.

To read the complete article, see:
Eleanor Rigby sculpture goes on display at Museum of Liverpool (artdaily.com/news/73343/Eleanor-Rigby-sculpture-goes-on-display-at-Museum-of-Liverpool#.VDEkMfmzFYE)

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