'Unity': An Inspirational Stainless Steel Sculpture

An engineer from West Sussex has used stainless steel to create a life-sized model of a nurse, in tribute to the many sacrifices made by key workers during the COVID-19 lockdown. Since beginning shortly after social distancing measures were introduced, John Gillespie has spent more than 100 hours on the inspirational project.

John, who is 41 years old and lives in Chichester, is an engineer and is more used to producing component parts for luxury yachts. After being 'inspired by the struggle of so many', he decided to show his feelings by using his workshop to build the sculpture, which is touchingly titled 'Unity'.

The sculpture is over three metres long and represents a nurse, seated with her head in her hands: this pose is deliberately designed to reflect the stress that frontline workers are currently under.  'Unity' features an array of keys in its construction, each of which is engraved with the job title of a key worker. The sculpture is almost complete: John said, "I’ve managed to get most of her together now. The bench is assembled but still needs welding and I’ve lots of little bits to still do."

John posted photos of his creation on social media, quickly attracting thousands of likes, shares and comments. In one of the photos, John is shown seated 2m away from his sculpture, in a tongue-in-cheek reference to social distancing measures. John was absolutely delighted with the response, which he called 'phenomenal, emotional, heartfelt and moving'. You can visit John's personal Facebook blog to track the progress of this inspirational stainless steel sculpture.

Though stainless steel is primarily regarded as an industrial material, the fact is that it also has many qualities that make it ideal as an artistic medium. BS Stainless has seen first-hand just how beautiful stainless steel art can be, as we have proudly supplied stainless steel wire to award-winning artists like Robin Wight and Candice Bees. Check out the BS Stainless blog for more information about these talented artists.