Sculpture design in Memory of the WWII Bombing of Bolton

This is a sculpture to represent the one hundredth anniversary of the bombing of Bolton by a German Navy L21 Zeppelin Airship on 25th September 1916.

Twenty-one bombs were dropped with six dropped within a tight radius around the Kirk Street Area; now the site of the University of Bolton. It is these six bombs that caused the greatest loss of life as a total of thirteen men women and children were lost around midnight, amongst them mothers and babies in arms.

Although a zeppelin’s approach is near silent, there are reports of thunder like rumbles and bright flashes of light, most likely cased by the explosions and subsequent fire damage. Further bombs were dropped including one onto Trinity Church, but miraculously it did not explode.

My design to commemorate this event, is a large scale light sculpture that represents the moment of explosive impact when people were cruelly taken unawares in their slumbers. I try to visualize each person that lost their life that night, what they would be wearing, where in the house they would be and with which family member and then encapsulate the horror and surprise on their faces and the force of the blast of their forms. The people and everyday household objects are all made of crystal-clear resin or glass with each piece displayed in suspended animation. The overall shape of these objects will be of a bomb nose cone or crater. The sculptural forms are lit from above with LED lights illuminating the pieces and casting shadows on the surrounding surfaces. The lights will be controllable so that they can be on constantly or in a series of flashings played to a soundtrack that will represent the horror of the bombs being dropped.

Photographs of the devastation of Kirk Street are from Bolton Museum and Art Gallery Archive. Other historical pictures are taken in the Museum. The cover picture is a digital drawing by Victoria Lynch and the design of the sculpture is by Victoria Lynch, with influences drawn from artists, Cornelia Parker and Stella MacCartney.