Barbara Hepworth’s celebrated cast bronze sculpture Dual Form has been carefully relocated from outside St Ives Guildhall to Kresen Kernow, in Redruth.
The temporary move ensures the sculpture’s protection during the Guildhall renewal project, while keeping it on public display for the community and visitors to enjoy.
Housed in the former Redruth Brewery, Kresen Kernow opened in 2019 and offers research areas, exhibition spaces, and an accessible environment. It preserves more than 1.5 million records spanning 850 years, celebrating Cornwall’s history.
“We are thrilled to be able to provide a temporary home for Dual Form, which has been made possible as a result of the government indemnity scheme,” said Deborah Tritton, service manager at Kresen Kernow.
“We would like to thank HM Government and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and Arts Council England for arranging the indemnity. This ensures the public can continue to enjoy it while the much-needed work is completed at the Guildhall.”
Barbara Hepworth gifted Dual Form to St Ives in 1968, following her award of the Freedom of the Borough, an honour she shared with fellow artist Bernard Leach. She personally selected its position outside the Guildhall, and during the current renovation, meticulous planning has ensured its exact placement will be maintained when it returns.
Dual Form is one of seven casts, with others displayed as far afield as Washington and the Netherlands. Hepworth herself believed that its placement in St Ives was the most striking, a sentiment expressed in her letters. Cast at the renowned Morris Singer Foundry, in London, Dual Form bears the foundry’s mark on its base.
Hepworth’s pioneering use of ‘pierced forms’ — openings that create interplay between space, light, and material — became a signature element of her work. She also embraced bronze as a medium, experimenting with patinas, such as copper nitrate, to add unique colour and texture to her sculptures.
St Ives Town Council enlisted a specialist sculpture-moving team, Sculpture Transport UK, with extensive experience in handling significant artworks, to safely transport Dual Form. This complex process included templating the sculpture’s base to ensure its future plinth matched precisely.
Charlotte Tomlinson, project manager for the Guildhall renewal project, said: “There has been a lot to consider in moving Dual Form. With such an important and large sculpture, we’ve worked carefully to account for every detail, including commissioning an experienced team and making sure its plinth will be a perfect fit.
“We’re thrilled to share Dual Form with Kresen Kernow for a short time, and look forward to its return to the Guildhall next year, where it will continue to inspire for decades to come.”
Town mayor, Johnnie Wells, added: “With so much hard work gone into the Guildhall renewal project behind the scenes over the past couple of years, it feels really good to actually see some of it starting to play out. Well done to all the team getting this far.
“I would like to encourage everyone to go to Kresen Kernow to see Dual Form there. It’s a great building, and well worth a visit.”
