This bronze seated figure is over five metres tall and sits on a stone plinth. The sculpture depicts a figure that is human shaped but is robotic and machine-like in its appearance.

Eduardo Paolozzi was among the most influential artists of the twentieth century. He pushed the boundaries of the art establishment and was a great innovator and pioneer.

Paolozzi said of this colossal bronze sculpture, commissioned to mark the centenary of the University of Birmingham’s Royal Charter, that it was ‘not of Faraday, but for him’. Faraday discovered the laws of electro-magnetic rotation and electrical induction and, among many other principles, explored the science of terrestrial magnetism. The loops of bronze between the figure’s hands are a visual manifestation of natural fields of force.

Paolozzi has here articulated the achievements of all experimental scientists who unlock and transform understanding of natural phenomena, and has also created an allegorical figure representing the control of power. His figure of another great scientist, Newton (1997), stands outside the British Library.

Cut in the bronze around the base of the figure are lines from The Dry Salvages by T.S. Eliot. These reflect upon growth and change, and bear a valuable message for all University students:

‘Here between the hither and the further shore
While time is withdrawn, consider the future
And the past with an equal mind.’

Commissioned to mark the centenary of the University of Birmingham's Royal Charter.

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