Month: September 2023

Aardman and Upfest at Bristol Dental School

Posted on by martha.crean
Denticle, Bristol Dental School

The University of Bristol’s new, purpose-designed Dental School officially opened on Friday 8 September

The design of the building includes public art featuring bespoke characters The Denticles, created by Gav Strange, Director & Designer at Aardman, the Academy Award®-winning animation studio based in Bristol. These take the form of five sculptures at the front of the building as well as character cushions for the children’s waiting area.

Working with Upfest,  local artist Bex Glover designed and painted two murals to incorporate the toothy characters – one for the main reception area which features landmarks from all over Bristol and one for the children’s waiting area with animals, plants, and flowers local to the area.

The £36 million facilities are located at the University’s new Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus and will provide the very latest clinical training for the education of dentists, hygienists and therapists, dental nurses, and wider dental team.

Spanning 7,300 square metres at 1 Trinity Quay, Avon Street, the Dental School will enable the University to increase the number of available student places by around 25 percent, with Bristol dental students contributing even more significantly to the local and national dental workforce. The refurbishment of the building has been led by construction company Kier Group. More information on the new Dental School

Dental School Students Sept 2023

Another Wave is Possible sculpture on campus

Posted on by martha.crean
Waves of Change

Designed to raise awareness of the devastating impacts of ocean plastics Another Wave is Possible, by Wren Miller, will be based outside the entrance to the University of Bristol’s Royal Fort Gardens throughout September.

The eye-catching 4m high and 6m long sculpture highlights the scale of littering in Bristol, having been made with 90kg of waste, equivalent to the volume of litter dropped on Baldwin Street on one busy Friday night.

Bristol residents may well already be familiar with the artwork, which has previously been on display on a floating pontoon in Bristol Harbour.

Artist Wren Miller said: “I choose to work with these materials because they tell a story of our convenience-driven, throw-away culture. When we cast away a plastic drink bottle or a crisp packet, we instantly forget about it, but these things could eventually dissolve into microplastics – plastic pollution. What gets into the water courses, flows out to sea. It’s not visible to us on land, but we are affecting wildlife, choking our seas and cutting off an important source of the world’s oxygen supply.

“The students at the University of Bristol are from across the globe, coming from so many backgrounds. But we all share one common truth: humanity is the biggest threat to this planet’s health and if we continue as we are currently, we will have blown it. I hope that the sculpture will inspire the university’s students to start conversations, which can lead to change.”

Further Information here