From 2009, controversial images will welome visitors arriving at London's St Pancras Station.
The friezes are supposed to depict modern Britain - a copulating couple, a vagabond carrying a bottle, and a hoodie expressing himself with his middle finger.
Welcome to Britain? The shocking frieze which will greet visitors to London's Eurostar terminal
By Beth Hale
11th October 2008
Daily Mail
Is it art? One of the controversial images from the clay sculpted
frieze, which will complete St Pancras International Station's Meeting Place statue
From next summer, travellers stepping off the train at St Pancras
International will be greeted with an artwork that sums up modern Britain.
But it might not be the Britain we'd like them to see.
A copulating couple. A vagabond carrying a bottle. And a hoodie expressing himself with his middle finger.
All these are 'concept' designs for the bronze frieze which is to be installed in the station.
The frieze will sit around the base of the towering Meeting Place statue of an embracing couple, which was unveiled last year.
Magnificent: London's St Pancras train station
Designs in clay by the sculptor, Paul Day, were unveiled on Friday at the station.
London and Continental Railways, which commissioned the piece - thought to have cost half a million pounds - admits that the images will be 'bold and edgy'.
However, a spokesman for the company said the image of a man 'giving the finger' was an early concept and would not be in the final work.
The frieze will wrap right around the plinth at the base of the existing statue and will depict different journeys on a railway theme.
The images of contemporary life will be punctuated by historical flashbacks, some that echo the station's past and others that reflect how railways have defined modern society.
Debauched: The controversial frieze depicts detailed images of couples kissing
Last night Tory MP Andrew Rosindell said he thought some aspects of modern life should not appear in such a high-profile piece of public art.
He voiced particular concern about one image, a skeleton at the wheel of a train, given the number of tragedies on the Underground.
He said: 'I think public art should be in good taste. Some of these images seem to be in poor taste and likely to cause offence.
'I think the skeleton is in particularly poor taste considering the number of people who perished in the King's Cross fire.'
Macabre: The frieze depicts a skeleton driving a tube train as a drunken tramp clutching a bottle looks on
Artist Paul Day outside the Meeting Place sculpture beneath the clock at St Pancras
Day, who also created the main Meeting Place statue, said the frieze was intended to be in contrast to the 'ideal' imagery of the main sculpture.
He added: 'The statue represents an ideal and is physically out of reach, just as the ideal is unobtainable.
'The frieze, on the other hand, is intimate, touchable and on a human scale.
'It represents the richness and diversity of our lives.'
He said the image of the hoodie was simply an example of his work on show for the art event and not intended to be part of the frieze.
He said the art work was ultimately upbeat and he did not think it would be a negative welcome to those arriving in Britain from abroad.
Art critic David Lee, who criticised the quality of the main sculpture, said he admired the frieze.
'It seemed to me a satirical take on what London is. It is brave of him to do something that is not just blandly and popularly descriptive. There's a whole raft of emotions.'
Everyday life: Some images are considered too bold and edgy
The Meeting Place stands directly beneath the station clock at the southern end of the Eurostar terminus, under the imposing iron archways constructed by engineer William Barlow in 1868.
It represents the meeting of a chic French woman reunited with her English lover and aims to symbolise the meeting of two cultures.
Day, 41, fought off stiff competition for the commission which called for a work as memorable as the Statue of Liberty and a meeting place for the station's 50million passengers a year.
In the eye of the beholder: The frieze is being sculpted in clay and cast in bronze
dailymail.co.uk
The friezes are supposed to depict modern Britain - a copulating couple, a vagabond carrying a bottle, and a hoodie expressing himself with his middle finger.
Welcome to Britain? The shocking frieze which will greet visitors to London's Eurostar terminal
By Beth Hale
11th October 2008
Daily Mail
Is it art? One of the controversial images from the clay sculpted
frieze, which will complete St Pancras International Station's Meeting Place statue
From next summer, travellers stepping off the train at St Pancras
International will be greeted with an artwork that sums up modern Britain.
But it might not be the Britain we'd like them to see.
A copulating couple. A vagabond carrying a bottle. And a hoodie expressing himself with his middle finger.
All these are 'concept' designs for the bronze frieze which is to be installed in the station.
The frieze will sit around the base of the towering Meeting Place statue of an embracing couple, which was unveiled last year.
Magnificent: London's St Pancras train station
Designs in clay by the sculptor, Paul Day, were unveiled on Friday at the station.
London and Continental Railways, which commissioned the piece - thought to have cost half a million pounds - admits that the images will be 'bold and edgy'.
However, a spokesman for the company said the image of a man 'giving the finger' was an early concept and would not be in the final work.
The frieze will wrap right around the plinth at the base of the existing statue and will depict different journeys on a railway theme.
The images of contemporary life will be punctuated by historical flashbacks, some that echo the station's past and others that reflect how railways have defined modern society.
Debauched: The controversial frieze depicts detailed images of couples kissing
Last night Tory MP Andrew Rosindell said he thought some aspects of modern life should not appear in such a high-profile piece of public art.
He voiced particular concern about one image, a skeleton at the wheel of a train, given the number of tragedies on the Underground.
He said: 'I think public art should be in good taste. Some of these images seem to be in poor taste and likely to cause offence.
'I think the skeleton is in particularly poor taste considering the number of people who perished in the King's Cross fire.'
Macabre: The frieze depicts a skeleton driving a tube train as a drunken tramp clutching a bottle looks on
Artist Paul Day outside the Meeting Place sculpture beneath the clock at St Pancras
Day, who also created the main Meeting Place statue, said the frieze was intended to be in contrast to the 'ideal' imagery of the main sculpture.
He added: 'The statue represents an ideal and is physically out of reach, just as the ideal is unobtainable.
'The frieze, on the other hand, is intimate, touchable and on a human scale.
'It represents the richness and diversity of our lives.'
He said the image of the hoodie was simply an example of his work on show for the art event and not intended to be part of the frieze.
He said the art work was ultimately upbeat and he did not think it would be a negative welcome to those arriving in Britain from abroad.
Art critic David Lee, who criticised the quality of the main sculpture, said he admired the frieze.
'It seemed to me a satirical take on what London is. It is brave of him to do something that is not just blandly and popularly descriptive. There's a whole raft of emotions.'
Everyday life: Some images are considered too bold and edgy
The Meeting Place stands directly beneath the station clock at the southern end of the Eurostar terminus, under the imposing iron archways constructed by engineer William Barlow in 1868.
It represents the meeting of a chic French woman reunited with her English lover and aims to symbolise the meeting of two cultures.
Day, 41, fought off stiff competition for the commission which called for a work as memorable as the Statue of Liberty and a meeting place for the station's 50million passengers a year.
In the eye of the beholder: The frieze is being sculpted in clay and cast in bronze
dailymail.co.uk