Sitting sculpture stolen

A wire model spent the day in Newark Market Place on Monday before being stolen.

Art student Daniel Marshall (18) of Winthorpe Road, Newark, who made the life-size model from a five-metre roll of chicken wire, placed his creation on a bench outside the Town Hall at 10.30am to test people’s observation skills.

Sitting in a pose inspired by Rodin’s The Thinker sculpture, the model stayed in the Market Place for most of the day before being stolen by early evening.

Daniel said he returned to the Market Place at 5.30pm to find the model had gone, but did not know who had taken it.

The stunt was carried out for a project called “discarded objects” on which Daniel is working as part of his art foundation course at Newark College.

He spent half an hour on Monday morning filming people’s reaction to the model.

“I wanted to see how few people actually noticed it and how long it took before it was moved,” he said.

“A couple of people noticed it and stopped to look, but most people didn’t.”

Daniel said he wanted to make a simple statement about forgotten people in society.

One passer-by who did notice the model, Mr Keith Leathers (67) of Farndon Road, Newark, said: “I think it is fantastic.”

Daniel made similar models in life drawing classes during a two-year graphics course at the college, which he finished last year.

After completing his one-year art foundation course, Daniel hopes to start an Open University degree in photography.

His ambition is to become a professional photographer.

An exhibition of Daniel’s photographs can be viewed at Il Castello on Castlegate.

There is one week left of the five-week exhibition, which includes black and white images of Newark.

Daniel said he planned to make more models in the near future and place them in other areas of Newark such as Millgate or near the River Trent, as well as in Lincoln and Nottingham.

He plans to put the footage of people’s reaction to the model on the You Tube website.