Black Country sculpture celebrating women who wear hijabs believed to be first of its kind in world

Black Country sculptor Luke Perry, 40, says he has been working on the project, named 'The Strength of the Hijab' for nearly two years.

It is believed to be the first of its kind in the world. The sculpture is five metres tall and weighs around a tonne.

Speaking about the project, Luke shared: "It is a piece that represents women who wear hijabs as there is very little representation for a community of women who wear a hijab, and I felt that they are misunderstood and under-represented.

"To start the project off I held workshops with women of Smethwick and they all said that they wanted something that represents them, and that there is nothing that looks like them or anything they can show their kids to be proud of.

"I feel that a lot of communities in the Black Country are diverse and so I wanted to create something that they can be visually proud of and something powerful."

The five-metre tall sculpture is expected to be installed and put on display around the beginning of November, at the bottom of Brass House Lane, Smethwick.

Luke added: "The process was a lengthy one, there was a year of decision making, and then six months of manufacturing and now there is the model making and piecing it all together.

"The details that have gone into it are incredible, including over 10 miles of welding with 7.5 miles of that welding going into the henna design patterns.

"It represents different communities from Smethwick, with numerous nationalities and there are little individual symbols and bits added to it that pays homage to them."

"That includes as Ms. Marvel symbol, the Bangladeshi language's symbol, historic henna patterns, lotus flowers, the Pakistani flag, as well as sewing equipment and cooking apparatus.

"The women brought items or objects in that they would have liked and we welded them in."

Some of the women who inspired and helped with the process saw the sculpture on Monday morning, and Luke said that they were all so surprised with the size and detail, but he was so excited to see their reactions.

Luke added: "This is something that is driven by the community's own design, and not something that I said this is what they need as I am not the target audience.

"I feel really happy to be making artwork of what I hope will be the future and showing off the beautiful diversity we have in the country and not the same old stuff."

The steel piece was commissioned by Legacy West Midlands, and has an estimated cost of £25,000.