In a career spanning several decades, Alan Birkinshaw has been immersed in the art of storytelling. Having written screenplays for the cinema and directed several major feature films with international stars, Alan has now turned his attention to storytelling using the oldest known visual medium of all – the medium of stone.
And more specifically, marble.
Marble, the purest of stones, has the texture and density to provide
the perfect ‘canvas’ for storytelling – even in 21st Century Britain with it’s e-readers and electronic gizmos.
‘Our stories are just as uplifting and exciting as any of those recorded by the Ancient Greeks or Romans,’ says Alan ‘and if we want them to be remembered in the centuries to come, we better find some way of guaranteeing their preservation, because it only needs an electricity wipe-out on a catastrophic scale, and every single word and visual image not set in stone will simply vanish. For ever.’
Alan’s interest in using the medium of marble to tell a story came about when he was commissioned to produce a marble frieze, one and a half metres in height, and stretching over 30 metres in length, telling the story of Alexander the Great’s Triumphal Journey into Babylon. It involved the hand carving in pure white marble, of animals and children, fisherman and musicians, and Alexander himself on his Chariot followed by his army of soldiers, an elephant, and his favourite horse, Bucephalus.
‘This was a great challenge for me,’ says Alan, ‘but we did it and the end result is simply breathtaking.’
And now what? ‘Well, I’d like to do a ‘Hero Wall’, or ‘Wall of Fame’. For example, David Beckham’s life story would be a good one. The history of British Grand Prix racing is another. And then there are the Olympic Champions. The possibilities are endless. It just needs people with vision and imagination to commission them.’
‘One last word on the subject. In my travels i discovered a thousand carvers carving a stone wall which when erected will be over thirty four feet high and will stretch several kilometres in length. It tells the story of Kubla Khan and Marco Polo going on a hunt. Now if that isn’t inspiration enough for someone to commission a more modest wall here in the UK, I don’t know what is!’ So what are we waiting for?’
