Rise - landmark white balls artwork by Wolfgang Buttress, located at Broadway Roundabout, A12 Westlink, Belfast, Co Antrim, Northern Ireland, UK,
RISE is the official name given to the public art sculpture located at Broadway Roundabout in Belfast, Northern Ireland. However, it has been given unofficial, colloquial titles such as the "Balls of the Falls", "the Testes on the Westes" and "the Westicles". These names have been derived by both the sculptures location on Broadway Junction (located above the A12 Westlink and in close proximity to the Falls Road) and in reference to its shape made from two, spherical, metal structures. The RISE sculpture was designed by Wolfgang Buttress and consists of a geodesic sphere suspended inside a larger, 30 m (98 ft) diameter sphere and stands at an overall height of m (123 ft). Geodesic refers to the shortest path between two points on a curve so that in the case of the RISE sculpture, adjacent connections on each of the spheres are connected using straight bars, thereby minimising the distance between two points. At 30m wide and tall, RISE is the biggest public art sculpture in Belfast. RISE was commissioned by Belfast City Council and built in 2011 as part of a multimillion-pound road improvement programme. It now sits atop of the A12 Westlink Underpass (a grade-separated junction) where, according to a 2009 NI assembly report, sees approximately 80,000 cars on average flow past it each day. Concept and Construction RISE during construction The globe-shaped, white and silver steel sculpture is a representation of a new sun rising to celebrate a new chapter in the history of Belfast. The inner sphere represents the sun rising over the bogs and the outer sphere represents the sun's halo, while the angled, steel supports are to represent the reeds of the bog meadows that extended more widely across the area before it was developed. Due to the Belfast's history of conflict and the location of the Westlink separating some of Belfast's unionist and nationalist communities, the sculpturer noted that it was important to design a sculpture that could be viewed in
Size: 5327px × 3491px
Location: Broadway Roundabout, A12 Westlink, Belfast, Co Antrim, Northern Ireland, UK, BT12 6JA
Photo credit: © Tony Smith / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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