On the 27.11.23 Maghull’s ‘CK’ (Community Kindness) Art Installation was unveiled by the Friends of Maghull & District (FOMD) at their four-year crowd funded Woodend Community Woodland Project, at the Maghull’s southern entrance from Switch Island at the junction of Liverpool Road South and Northway (L31 7BG).
The iconic refurbished floral art lambanana known as ‘CK’ was painted stunningly by Aimee Burns, Miss Payet and Mrs Eborall from Maghull High School Art department (pictured), earlier this year.
Mrs Eborall explained that, ‘the original SuperLambBanana was commissioned in 1998 and is one of the most popular and instantly recognisable pieces of public sculpture in Liverpool’.
Japanese artist Taro Chiezo aimed to represent both a sense of humour alongside the serious contemporary issue of genetic engineering, and a nod to Liverpool docks, where bananas and sheep were regular cargos. He originally created a 4 inch tall sculpture. This was scaled up by 4 local artists to 5.2 meters tall. They used a wire-mesh frame supporting a fibreglass and concrete shell, at a cost of £35,000.
Memorably, as part of the European Capital of Culture celebrations in 2008, 125 miniature replicas were dotted around Merseyside. The two-metre high sculptures were developed in partnership between the Liverpool Culture Company and Wild in Art, and each one was sponsored by local businesses.
They remained on display for 10 weeks of summer before being auctioned off for the Lord Mayor’s charities. More than £500,000 was generated for good causes, with one mini-Superlambanana fetching a whopping £25,000! Comedian John Bishop was among the list of buyers.
We were inspired by local wildflowers, to tie in with the theme of the bins painted and on displayed in Maghull Town Centre. The aim of the painting was to spread joy through the bright bursts of colour, we do hope it will brighten many days’.
Dr Frank Sharp (FOMD) added that, ‘we believe our lambanana was originally displayed at the Pyramid Shopping Centre, Birkenhead (pictured) and entitled ‘Culture Chalk’ by Jacqueline Boylan. Boylan created the blackboard design because she wanted people to be able to “talk back” about the Capital of Culture and hoped they would draw their own artistic interpretations on the board. When all the installations were sold for charity it is understood that it was purchased by Steve Simonsen (Everton goalkeeper) who later sold it to the Maghull Lip Dr business and it was repainted to advertise their business. In 2023, FOMD purchased it and undertook a further restoration before it was kindly and beautifully painted with a floral design to be a cheerful addition to our Woodend Community Woodland Project, by Maghull High School.
Whilst the rockery surround provides a beautiful natural element to the plinth. It also functions to highlight acts of community kindness through the plaques planted within the rockery, which will be refreshed with new and old acts of community kindness, and recorded on the FOMD website ( www.fomd.co.uk ) forever, in more detail, to celebrate and inspire community kindness that was born out of the pandemic challenges and beyond’ (1).
Huge thanks to Maghull high school and the many other contributors, highlighted previously (1).
Wishing You All A Happy New Year,
FOMD
Together Making Maghull a better place to live.
- https://www.fomd.co.uk/the-making-of-maghulls-warm-welcome-celebrating-and-inspiring-community-kindness-2of3/
