The Messenger

Messenger, by Newcastle artist Joseph Hillier, is seven metres (23 feet) high, 

nine metres (30 feet) wide, and weighs 9.5 tonnes. The largest lost-wax cast bronze sculpture ever made in the UK, it depicts an actress playing the part of Olivia in a Theatre Royal production of Shakespeare’s Othello.

Hillier’s inspiration for the sculpture came from a split-second pose struck by an actress during rehearsals, and although gargantuan in scale, the pose of the sculpture

 is described as “small, crouched and loaded with the potential to spring forward at any moment, a metaphor for the city of Plymouth and its creative ambitions.”