This is my largest sculptural project to date. The head alone weighted 4,500 kgs.
It was built during a nineteen month period between 1984-85.
At the back of the mouth there is a bench to sit on. In this cave like area I created prehistoric type reliefs of an imaginary whale hunting tribe. I selected the Right Whale because it is found on both Canadian coasts and is the most endangered of the whale species.
Some production images.
I found a complete set of Right Whale bones at the University of Pisa. They had been attached to a ceiling, 12 meters in the air for about 150 years. It was then decided to move them to a new Natural History Museum. This happened two weeks before I came looking for them!
They were invaluable as they helped to establish measurements like the distance between the eyes. I made a scale model of the bones and then fleshed them out with plastacine. The intermediate and final model were made in clay.
Because of size I had to make the maquette and then an intermediate model before developing the full size original.
The foundry pulled out all stops to make sure this project arried on time. In the process they developed a new method for preparing the waxes. A technique they still use to-day. This was a fantastic band of artisans to work with. We are now ready to join the two sections of the head together.