Outside the Silent Reading Room
Looking out from both sides of the Silent Reading Room on Floor 02, at the southern corner of the Library, one can just see amongst the trees, a maze of squares captured in a 10ft sculpture by Henry Clyne. There is in fact only one complete square in the whole work.
Since the Archives holds the maquette of this sculpture I thought it would be interesting to see if I could find out more.
The sculpture was presented to the University by the Village architect, David Mawson, and was first erected on the 21st of February 1964 in the UEA Village near the dining hall.
Maquette of Henry Clyne sculpture
Having dominated the site of our initial pre-fabricated campus across Earlham Road it must surely be etched in the memories of our first students. It was in fact something to write home about. In a letter to his family, Adrian Smith (BIO66) wrote: “We have also had the first news of a work of art whose erection at the village is imminent. We hope it will prove useful as a prop for bicycles, and if necessary for stringing up the V-C?”
Adrian’s letter, 1964
Funnily enough, Vice Chancellor Frank Thistlethwaite quite liked the sculpture, in fact he liked it so much that he asked to keep the maquette on his desk. Years later when the Archives acquired Thistlethwaite’s papers, the maquette came too.
UEA Village, 1964
So what do the rest of us make of the structure, a climbing frame, a geometrical puzzle?
When interviewed at the time of construction, Mr Clyne said of his work “it’s just an idea; a variation in squares, but it isn’t really supposed to mean anything definite.”
David Mawson jokingly referred to it as “a symbol of the co-operation of the squares involved.”
UEA Village, 1964. Photograph by Stanley Smith
The copper sculpture, brazed with brass and wrapped over a steel frame, now occupies a contrastingly green and leafy part of our campus, there to be re-discovered on the more tranquil side of the Library.
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I am trying to trace the date(s) of the sculptor Henry H. Clyne, and so was most interested in your entry. Do you have these?
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A 1964 press article referred to Clyne as a 34 year old Scot from John O’Groats (1930?- )
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Whatever the arist’s view may have been of what he was doing the official word in the early years was that this was a representation of UEA’s committment to interdisciplinarity–inter-connected boxes. It was quite prominent at the entrance to the old University Village, outside the Library as it then was, confronting visitors with an assertion of one of UEA’s founding principles. So, it’s back in proximity to the Library again. When the village site was sold for development (later to be bought back at at a profit to the University) it was moved and spent a few years outside the Arts Building where now the disabled parking is located. To my mind it always looked entirely forlorn and overwhelmed by the Arts Building. It must be tough: in the early days it received a lot of attention from the rugby club on Saturday nights–although I don’t think that the entire team ever managed to mount it all in one go!
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