King Kong statue
| King Kong statue | |
|---|---|
The statue, in its original colours, being temporarily exhibited at Aston University, Gosta Green in Birmingham
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| Artist | Nicholas Monro |
| Year | 1972 |
| Type | Statue |
| Medium | Fibreglass |
| Subject | King Kong |
| Dimensions | 550 cm (220 in) |
| Weight | 890 kg (1,960 lb) |
| Location | Leeds |
| 53°48′00″N 1°32′51″W / 53.7999301°N 1.5475642°WCoordinates: 53°48′00″N 1°32′51″W / 53.7999301°N 1.5475642°W | |
| Owner | Lesley Maby |
A statue of King Kong by Nicholas Monro was commissioned in 1972 for display in Manzoni Gardens in The Bull Ring, in the centre of Birmingham, England. It was later displayed elsewhere in Birmingham, then at markets in Edinburgh, Penrith (where it was subsequently stored), and now at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds.
The Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol had a maquette. That is now in the collection of Wolverhampton Art Gallery.
Modelled on the fictional giant gorilla King Kong, the 550 cm (18 ft)-tall, 890 kg (1,960 lb)fibreglass statue was commissioned for display in Birmingham from March to November 1972, by the Peter Stuyvesant Foundation for the Sculpture for Public Places Scheme "City Sculpture", in partnership with the Arts Council of Great Britain.
It was constructed at the artist's studio at Hungerford. Munro's brief was to make something "city orientated" and he chose King Kong because of his association with New York City and "for my own petty reasons".
The statue was displayed in Manzoni Gardens (now the site of the Bullring shopping mall). On 14 July 1972 it was "occupied" by two flying pickets, who were protesting about low wages in the building industry as art of the national builders' strike. They sat on its shoulders and hung from its neck a banner reading "King King says nothing less than £30 for 35 hours and up your T.P.I."
After the statue had been on display for six months, Birmingham City Council was offered the opportunity to purchase the work, but decided not to retain it, and so later in 1972, it was sold for £3,000 to a local used-car dealer, Mike Shanley, who changed the name of his dealership to King Kong Car Co. and displayed the statue at his sales lot on the A34 Stratford Road, next to the former Holy Trinity church in the Camp Hill area of the city. While there, it was dressed up as Father Christmas in season. It is likely that a subsequent owner of the statue and lot was a Mr Racey.
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