Unique kitchen sink sculpture gets official launch on Morecambe beach

Local historian and key member of Morecambe Heritage Centre, Peter Wade, performed the official unveiling on Friday of the old kitchen sink sculpture by Anthony Padgett.

Sited on a resort beach where the Central Pier once stood, the ‘Kitchen Sink Drama’ sculpture is a tribute to famous playwright John Osborne (1929-1994) who finished off his play, Look Back In Anger, on Morecambe Pier in 1955.

He described the Pier, which was demolished in the 1990s, as his open air office.

The play marked the first ‘kitchen sink’ drama and led the way for TV series like Coronation Street and EastEnders.

Osborne's play, The Entertainer, was also filmed in Morecambe in 1960.

Anthony said: "As Look Back in Anger was the start of the kitchen sink drama I thought a ready made sculpture of a kitchen sink would be a piece of contemporary art that is a great contrast to the traditional figurative sculpture of Eric Morecambe.

"There is not much contemporary art in Morecambe and the work references Marcel Duchamp's famous 1917 Fountain ready made urinal sculpture."

Anthony, whose workshop is based at Preston's Birley studios, hopes the work will firmly establish in people's minds the fact Osborne wrote Look Back in Anger on the pier, and will draw a lot of debate and interest and create a kitchen sink drama all of its own.

The launch of the sculpture marks a call for entries to Morecambe Bay Art Fair competition on Saturday August 13 with the theme, Morecambe Celebrity.

Submission is on the day at The Platform. More details here