The introduction
I was approached around a year ago to design a memorial for a very special man. The client had seen some examples of my sculptural work via my website and instagram, having had a recommendation from Ian Dungavell at Highgate cemetery office that I could be the ideal artist to undertake this uniquely sculptural project. The client, who lives in the US, told me about her initial ideas, and we set up a zoom call. We discovered we were very much on the same page in terms of our vision and our likes and dislikes stylistically speaking and it became clear we would be able to work extremely well together. Following on from this virtual meeting we subsequently met on site (and later at my workshop) to get deeper into the details, to discuss materials and potential ideas for content. Below is the Hotung Memorial Garden site before work began. You can see the area is surrounded by crosses and Victorian memorials of various descriptions, and the red granite memorial to Sir Joseph’s parents in the centre was quite awkwardly positioned in this family plot, with the rectangular kerbing sitting uncomfortably within the angular boundary.

A bit about Joseph

Sir Joseph Hotung was a British / Hong Kong businessman, philanthropist and art collector. He was born in Shanghai, and educated in China, the US and London. His philanthropic work included funding hospitals, universities and scientific research facilities, contributing to HIV Aids and COVID research among many other things. His passion for art was profound and starting with ancient Chinese Neolithic jade, he developed a collection which later included Ming dynasty furniture, English furniture, Impressionist paintings, more modern sculptures and paintings, and the finest collection of Chinese blue and white porcelain. He donated hundreds of items from his collection to the British Museum, of which he was a trustee, including 246 ancient jades and other sculptures and porcelain. He also paid for the
refurbishment of three galleries at the British Museum: the Sir Joseph Hotung Gallery for China and South Asia, the Sir Joseph Hotung Centre for Ceramic Studies, which includes the Sir Percival David Collection of Chinese ceramics, and the Sir Joseph Hotung Great Court Gallery.

Inspiration

The main circular element in the design is a reference to ancient Chinese Neolithic sculpture, a pierced disc known as a ‘Bi’. In Chinese culture, a Bi represents the sun, or heaven, and they were often ceremonially buried with the dead to accompany them to the afterlife. They were mainly made in jade, but also glass occasionally. Early Neolithic examples were extremely simple and undecorated whereas later examples were often intricately carved with extremely time-consuming raised detailing.

Below are some examples of these Bi discs.

Below are some examples of jade sculptures that Joseph enjoyed

The client and I were keen to incorporate some relief carving into the design, having seen examples at my workshop. I was keen to explore how several disparate elements could combine cohesively. A simple bold circular form, some detailed relief carving, an inscription or two, a plinth to support the disc, and potentially some sort of surround. We also discussed some form of seating. We eventually arrived at a basic design proposal to submit to the cemetery. I had also suggested a few descriptive words could be carved into the stepped stone surround. These are my initial proposals for the relief carvings:

After much discussion, we decided it would be good to use a beautiful material for the Bi, and keep that element quite simple. We ultimately felt it could all get a bit busy if this fairly large disc was elaborately embellished. The intricacy could be in the plinth, which offered 4 faces that could accommodate the relief carvings. I researched marble and granite for the circular form, putting out feelers online and ending up being bombarded by suppliers in China, India, Turkey, Iran, Ukraine, Egypt, Brazil and Greece.

It was an interesting period communicating with different quarries and suppliers in different countries, some were desperate to sell me stone – my WhatsApp was exploding 24/7. Eventually we narrowed it down and landed on an Indian marble known as Rainforest. It has several colour variants from green to brown. We didn’t want to pretend it was jade, and therefore veered away from greeny hues. As for the plinth and steps, I opted for a Portuguese limestone called Moleanos as it’s hard and durable. There are different grades of this limestone, I chose the most frost-resistant (and typically the hardest to carve!). This is very ‘plucky’ as we call it, and needs to be worked slowly to avoid unsightly blowouts. This relief panel took over 4 weeks to carve.

Here are some more workshop videos showing the carving process

There’s a lot of work involved when you’re working with larger stones, every element is heavy and needs careful handling.

Site work

Part of this project involved relocating a slab within this family plot. This was easier said than done. The plot is on a slope and the ground is London clay. Every time we dug was a challenge, and clay has a habit of sticking to everything – your boots just get bigger and bigger.

Phase 1-2. We excavated and made new footings for the existing red granite memorial to Joseph’s parents. We then managed to lift and manoeuvre it onto this. We also cast footings for a simple seat. On the next few visits we broke up the rectangular concrete footings, excavated and poured the new circular footing. Note how in the first picture below the original granite slab had apparently moved downhill and was overlapping another structure, so we added reinforced vertical piles to the new round foundation to stop any lateral movement. Then installation could begin, firstly with the granite bases. Thanks to Victor for all his help with landscaping and lifting in these early phases. We had tonnes of soil, concrete and stone that needed moving.

We were now ready to install the stones, once they were carved and shaped. We needed to use a flatbed truck with a hi-ab for the remaining pieces.

Then we were able to fine tune the landscaping and turf the area, with a view to planting up in October.

The main inspiration for the relief panels on the plinth were pieces from Joseph’s personal collection, although I adapted the designs to fit into the shape of the recesses. He was really fond of horses and the image on the reverse was loosely based on Hang Dynasty horse sculptures. The lettering on the top step was hand carved, and reads thus: GUIDED BY PRINCIPLE, DEVOTED TO HUMANITY, REMEMBERED WITH LOVE.

I am extremely grateful to all the staff at Highgate, they are a really helpful team, so a big thanks to Ian for recommending me, to Jess for choreographing the access / logistical side of things, to Victor the Super Sexton for being positive and helpful (despite taking the mickey the whole time) and also thanks to Frank and all the ground staff there. We had a lot of difficult processes to undertake, and without their cooperation it would have been so much more stressful. Thanks also go to assistants Dan, Dan and Mirella for the site work and my partner Sam for taking on the garden, which we look forward to planting up soon. Well done everyone.

Also a big thank you to Ellen for being a trusting and supportive client and for allowing me the freedom to design this and follow my ideas through.