‘We talk about Robin Hood to the death and Maid Marian barely gets a mention in the 21st Century,’ says Nottingham city councillor, Sam Lux.
A new sculpture representing the legendary heroine has been unveiled in the city centre, just off the aptly-named Maid Marian Way.
She will complement the iconic statue of Sherwood Forest outlaw Robin Hood, which has been a centrepiece outside Nottingham Castle since the early 1950s.
The bronze sculpture was created by internationally-renowned Polish artist Alicja Biała, with help from hundreds of people who attended her workshops.
It has been shaped by Nottingham’s landscape, folklore and key values, including its bid to become carbon neutral by 2028 and a ‘forest city’ by 2030, through the expansion of the Green Heart.
Maid Marian now sits on a sandstone plinth at the new £9 million junction where Tollhouse Hill, Upper Parliament Street, and Derby Road meet.
We should be celebrating women
Cllr Lux (Lab), who is Nottingham City Council’s executive member for climate and energy, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS):
I think we should be celebrating women, appreciate their mythical legends, but even so it is so important we don’t erase women from history and celebrate them as well.
In the first instance it is very beautiful and creative and is a symbol of the up and coming nature of the city centre which I represent. I am so pleased we have something new and central, it is the cherry on the cake of the Maid Marian Way development.
I’d love it to inspire people to think more about nature, maybe about feminism and maybe about art in general.
Wax has been used to create moulds of some of Nottinghamshire’s native plants, wildflowers and trees, including the Nottingham catchfly, English oak, silver birch, hawthorn, bluebell and common nettle, and these have all been woven into the sculpture’s bronze structure.
The roots connecting Maid Marian to the sandstone plinth symbolise her connection Nottingham’s history, ecology, and communities.
An open silhouette to represent Maid Marian
Ms Biała told the LDRS she found it difficult to come up with a single vision, because it began with different ideas about what Maid Marian represents.
Therefore, she says, she decided on a hollowed out structure.
Explaining the decision, she added:
My main goal from the beginning was to just have it incredibly open, which is partially why it is a silhouette. Therefore anyone can come in and sort of put a person, or that vision, or that idea into it.
We had over 100 people come in to the workshop and we were working with local plants to create wax sculptures that were then cast in bronze. Every single piece that you see in the sculpture, on the sculpture, every piece that creates it, is actually made by someone else in the local community.
It is important for me to note only about 14 percent of sculptures in public space represent a woman. Also there is an incredible under-representation of women artists in public spaces. Only one out of five sculptures were created by female artists.
She added she hoped it would help raise awareness for the changing climate and each person’s impact on it.
Local people and local groups participated
More than 700 people from local groups such as Sutherland House School and Nottingham Women’s Centre took part in hands-on workshops led by Ms Biała.
A new exhibition called Our Marian is also being hosted from Friday, July 17, celebrating Nottingham’s overlooked female folklore figure.
It is open Thursday to Saturday between 12 and 4pm at the Main Gallery, BACKLIT, Alfred House, Ashley Street, Nottingham.
By Local democracy Reporter Joe Locker.
