Steel sculpture celebrating black history unveiled in Birmingham
A steel sculpture celebrating the role that black culture has played in history has been unveiled along a busy canal line.
The piece, developed in partnership with Legacy West Midlands and the Canal and River Trust, aims to show the important role that black culture has played in the world and local history.
The metal art piece, called Black History is British History, was crafted by Cradley Heath artist, Luke Perry, for Black History Month, and sits in All Saints Park, in Winson Green, Birmingham.
Luke, 39, said: "I think for me the dominant emotion while I was doing all this is pride, I'm so proud to be able to help represent this proud heritage.
"By representing working black people, this art says this culture and history is equally important and that's a really important message."
The art piece portrays "strong and proud figures" of black culture standing in front of a set of sails that hold the words "Black history is our history".
The art piece sits near the Birmingham Canal Old Line, which stretches through the West Midlands and was crucial to the Black Country coal industry.
The woman in the piece, Rebecca, an NHS nurse, symbolises the power of black women in black history and the role they played in Britain following the Second World War, the man, Sebert Williams, was one of the youngest black bus drivers in the West Midlands, and the boy Aidan, represents young hope.
The artist continued: "It is quite rare in this line of work that you get to represent black history in such a positive way, so we really wanted to do this piece justice.
"We wanted to do this in a way that all the figures looked proud and we wanted to make sure these were people the public could aspire to. We wanted to do these cultures justice."
The artist worked alongside Canaan Brown, a 21-year-old art and design student at Birmingham City University to help formulate the idea.
Luke said: "It was really important to do this with as much integrity as possible, I worked with some very interesting people. I knew that I couldn't do this thing with just information from Wikipedia, you need to work with people who have that history, who have been affected by this.
"I worked with this great young artist, Canaan Brown, I am kind of tutoring him at the moment. As a person of black heritage himself, he has an amazing interest in how black art is represented. It really was very important to illustrate how much history there is there, but not in a negative way.
Canaan said: "This sculpture is an opportunity to highlight and celebrate the history of black involvement in the country which has helped to shape our society today.
"It exemplifies the power in representation beyond victimisation – showcasing the cultural excellence, strength and generational heritage that has for far too long been marginalised, misrepresented or distorted."
More information on the artwork and other art pieces can be found on the Legacy West Midlands website legacy-wm.org
