Mike Smith Studio

Julian Opie’s ‘dancers’ are large scale sculptures, using his simplistically styled drawings, immediately recognisable by their unique style.

We have aluminium plates waterjet cut to the outline shape. We then put in a structure of braces between the two faces, separating them to the appropriate width, and weld these into place. Any supporting structure for the sculpture to be fitted to a base must also be welded in at this stage.

Finally we hand-form aluminium strips to follow the form of the figure. Each one must follow the line of the drawing exactly, or the final result doesn’t look right. We use rollers, our press brake and formers which we manufacture specifically for the projects to get the right curves.

These are then also welded into place, and the entire piece cleaned back to a flawless aluminium finish with radius edges.

We can then send the sculptures to be painted.

The lightbox sculptures follow a broadly similar production route, except we fit the interior with a backing which is light-reflactive, and fully wire the light source into place, before fitting diffusers, the image, and a protective perspex front.

We also undertake repairs to these sculptures, as they are often shown in public spaces and are touched and have even been climbed upon.