"For Love Of Cyprus" by Maurice Blik
For the Love of Cyprus (2017), a 6.5m high bronze panel, inspired by Rodin’s Gates of Hell. Commissioned by Erbil Arkin, chairman of the Arkin Group, to reflect his ambition for the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities to be reconciled, the huge panel was completed in just 12 months and cast in a mere six.
Maurice Blik started with a small maquette at the proposal stage that was a metre high. From there he scaled it up to 2 and half times the size, so he could work the figures with more expression and attention to detail. Scanning the 2nd maquette allowed him to scale it to over 6 metres high. This was done by separating the figures and having them CNC machined in polystyrene. Each one could be hand worked further and placed back into the composition accurately.