This wonderful fountain by Dhruva Mistry has had problems with leaks… and now the price on restoring it, again, is becoming almost prohibitive. I think it is wonderful, there is a pool, and different objects, including this reclining nude in Victoria Square in Birmingham. The whole work is made up of four pieces, River, Guardians, Youth and Object Variations; the female figure here is the River and represents the life force, and is one of the largest fountains in the whole of Europe. There are two smaller figures which represent Youth and then two sphinx like creatures are the Guardians. There are two abstract pieces which are the Object Variations, with a lamp on each
There are lines from T.S.Eliot’s ‘Four Quartets’ from ‘Burnt Norton:
And the pool was filled with water out of sunlight,
And the lotus rose, quietly, quietly,
The surface glittered out of heart of light,
And they were behind us, reflected in the pool.
Then a cloud passed, and the pool was empty.
Lois Elsden 