Dragonfly sculpture inspired by Gazelle

A HUGE dragonfly sculpture has taken pride of place at the Solstice Park services area off the A303 trunk road at Amesbury.

The 40ft by 30ft sculpture is the inspiration of artist Charlotte Moreton and was built from the body of an old Gazelle helicopter, by aeronautical engineering apprentices from nearby QinetiQ at Boscombe Down, in a unique project involving the Salisbury International Arts Festival and Natural England's Living River project.

Living River is a £1m project aimed at increasing the awareness and appreciation of the River Avon system.

Over a 14-week period Charlotte and the apprentices have transformed the helicopter into a work of art. They stripped out the workings, reversed the tail, formed giant mesh eyes and added steel lattice wings before spraying the whole sculpture with pearlescent paint.

The completed dragonfly has been mounted on a 27ft pole and looks down on Solstice Park and the nearby A303. Developers were keen to bring public art, designed and engineered by local people, to the business park.

Marketing executive Alexandra Spencer said: "It was the vision of local planners to locate public art at Solstice Park and this collaboration with QinetiQ and the artist Charlotte Moreton was unique and inspirational.

"A panoramic site was chosen and the scale of the dragonfly will not fail to impress."

The dragonfly was officially unveiled' by Salisbury MP Robert Key on Monday.

Date of issue: 12th June 2007