Lord David Blunkett unveils my Best Friends statue of Dog and Boy for Archbishop’s Park in London

For me, Best Friends is a celebration of the extraordinary bond between people and dogs, and the joy, comfort and companionship they bring to our lives. Dogs have an incredible ability to lift our spirits, offering unwavering loyalty and affection, and accepting us just as we are. I wanted the sculpture to capture something of that universal relationship, creating a dog that wasn’t recognisably any particular breed, but instead represented something of every dog. There are touches of a lot of dogs in the sculpture, and also little bits of my own three rescue dogs, as well as Coco, the much-loved dog of my dear friend Helen Lees, who spent many happy years bounding around Archbishop’s Park. My hope was that everyone who sees Best Friends might recognise a little of their own dog, their own child, or their own experience of love and companionship. For 20,000 years they’ve been helping and supporting us, and it was my pleasure to finally get my own thanks to them out there in a public sculpture.

I also wanted the sculpture to celebrate the wonderful community that has grown around Archbishop’s Park, bringing together dog walkers, families and local people who care deeply about this special green space. I’ve known Helen Lees for many years, and she is one of the most extraordinary women I’ve ever met, combining kindness, intelligence and grace with remarkable determination. It was her drive, which has been present through twenty years of stewarding volunteering in the park, which made the sculpture happen. Her dedication and the local community has been a huge inspiration to me. As someone whose love of dogs has shaped so much of my life and work, Best Friends really has been the ultimate commission: an opportunity to celebrate not only the remarkable relationship between humans and dogs, but also the friendships, connections and sense of belonging that make a community. It was particularly wonderful to have Lord David Blunkett unveil the sculpture alongside his own beautiful guide dog, adding another meaningful dimension to this celebration of the place dogs hold in our lives.

The star of the show was Reuben Andreu, whose family had very kindly responded to my requests on local community forums near Llandovery in Wales, and provided the wonderfully sunny young boy to be my inspiration for the boy in Best Friends. Here’s my rescue boy Tinto, having the time of his life while he’s helping me get Reuben’s hands in the right positions. Reuben was 6 when I photographed him to sculpt, his family moved to Wales years ago and he was born in Glangwili Hospital, making him both my third figure in public sculpture in London, and possibly (depending on how you count – for example counting PM David Lloyd George), the tenth Welsh person represented in London, and potentially the youngest!

It takes months to create a sculpture – both in the design and sculpting, but then also in the moulding and casting in Foundry Bronze metal. I actually found not working from a specific dog very challenging, as in most of my work I can work from life and photos, and get a good sense of my subject (even if my photos provided from clients are blurry!) Here, trying to sculpt a dog that wasn’t a specific breed, I had a lot of decisions to make. Then added to that, the design of a dog and boy standing still, all feet on the ground, was very static, and it took a lot of thought getting movement into the pose. I hope the choices of shapes and textures helped to achieve that, it’s always terrifying when the cloth is pulled away and all your work is revealed to the public for the first time.

A big thank you to all the people involved in helping me make the sculpture. Milwyn Foundry in Basingstoke for their wonderful bronze casting work. Al Maddocks for his mouldmaking. Reuben of course for being my wonderful model. And of course Helen Lees, Chair of Archbishop’s Park Community Trust for raising the money to make this possible – I’ve mentioned before but she’s always been a towering figure in the borough for me. A mention too, for Tim Hollins, board member of the community trust, and past diploma student of the art college I set up, who kept an artistic eye out throughout and will always remain very dear to me. Thanks too to Lambeth Council, including Theresea Hoare and Kevin Wallace for their work in the background through Lambeth Council. Plus the hardworking TCV volunteers for hand-digging the hole to protect the trees, and pouring the concrete. And of course the PITT team who seem to be everywhere looking after nearly 40 parks, for doing the cobblestoning. A huge thank you to Leiths Natural Stone (and Caroline Reid) for the beautiful plinth and thanks to WB Services for carefully getting the sculpture onsite. I’m grateful that the Mayor of Lambeth, Councillor Paul Valentine attended, along with a number of councillors including Natalie Kane, Ibrahim Dougas and Doug Buist, despite the wet. And lastly, thanks to my husband Charles for keeping casting and the groundwork on track.

I love receiving feedback, it’s hearing from the people and dogs who enjoy the park I’m most pleased about. I am one of those people who has more photos of their dogs than their family, and so it is with great vicarious pleasure that I look at people’s snaps in front of the statue with their best furry friends. So thank you Mala Bissoon for the first local photo sent to me of her absolutely gorgeous Picardy Sheepdog, Indie. I had the pleasure of meeting Mala and Indie out walking the day before, the exact thing I’d hoped to represent a little bit of with the statue. He was also a lovely big boy! So perfect on many levels!

Public sculptures celebrating the relationship between people and dogs in the UK

There are some inspiring statues of people and dogs, and my favourite are always the ones that place the relationship front and centre. I wish there were more! These kinds of sculptures speak to me most, and I love where the artist had attempted to capture something special in their concept. It’s also inspiring for me, but I would love to see our public spaces filled with acknowledgements to our pets. I’m certainly biased, but we as a country are known for being a bit nutty about our dogs, and it would be wonderful if that were represented in more sculptures about them in our public spaces.

Greyfriars Bobby is one of the most famous stories in the UK – and a sad one – about a dog and their owner. The tale is about Bobby lying on his owner’s grave for years after they passed. To be honest I don’t like talking about it as it makes me want to cry. It also shows how often a relationship is defined in sculpture by the absence of one or other of the subjects. On a personal level I’d love to see more of the joy of their relationships shown in life. The photo is by Kim Traynor (WikiCommons).

I love the statue of Khan and Lance Corporal Jimmy Muldoon in Scotland, for the placement and importance of the dog in the statue. The saviour pooch saved Jimmy from drowning in the sea of the Netherlands, and the connection between the two in the sculpture immediately brings a sense of Jimmy’s gratitude. Images from the BBC.

The Future? – Marshall and Millions

I have been asked to do a much sadder sculpture, and the group of fundraisers who got in touch are keen on capturing the loyalty and love of dogs, but in a memorial to a pair of dogs who were shot and killed. Marshall and Millions became the centre of a very difficult story that rose into the public’s eye of a homeless man’s two bull breeds being shot by a police firearms team. It is a difficult story for many reasons, and personally, as a great lover of bull breeds I would be honoured to represent them in the pose chosen, which is directly drawn from a photo of them resting comfortably on the London Underground with one another. It is difficult to look into the relationship of another person and their closest friends, and see that broken apart under any circumstances, and I understand how difficult it has been for the community to come to terms with it. If you want to support the fundraising effort, there is a GoFundMe page, which returns your donations if there is an issue with the legitimacy of the fundraiser, (the site guarantee is here: link).