The Surrey Scholar

‘The Surrey Scholar’ was commissioned by the University of Surrey for the historic town of Guildford to mark the millenium. The brief for the design was that ‘it should be original, figurative, dynamic, contemporary in feel, and incorporate references to the Guildford Book Festival and the International Music Festival’. A number of sculptors were invited to submit drawings and maquettes for selection by committee. Work began in 2001, and the sculpture was unveiled by HRH The Duke of Kent KG on the 29th May 2002. Sly’s design paid particular attention to the demands of the site, with its steep gradient, vehicle and pedestrian traffic, exposure to strong winds and potential for vandalism.

Sly was concerned to interpret the figure so that the viewer responded to the human qualities of its representation and suggested movement through gesture and balance. The larger than life figure enabled the viewer to engage with the subject from a distance and to become absorbed in its form and three-dimensional description when underneath it. The 11-foot high figure is balanced on one toe, and was modelled to full size in clay in the studio, on steelwork specifically devised by Sly to support the loading of the clay on a sculpture of this scale. The size, scale, weight and equilibrium of the sculpture presented the structural engineers with exacting problems in relation to the steep incline of the site.

Working alongside the engineers to resolve these problems, Sly tested the steel structures devised for the original model to see if this would carry the weight of the final bronze on the incline of the site. The solution devised in the studio to Sly’s specification provided a sculpture-led solution to the engineering problems and achieved a new solution to the problems of siting the sculpture for the engineers.