essays by Kenny Hunter, Ray MacKenzie, Francis McKee, Ross Birrell

In 2001, Strathclyde Fire Brigade commissioned sculptor Kenny Hunter to make a statue celebrating the service’s relationship to the city of Glasgow. Citizen Firefighter is an assessment of that commissioning process including essays by both Hunter and one of the commissioning firefighters as well as critical essays by Ray McKenzie, Ross Birrell and Francis McKee. McKenzie examines the commission within the larger context of contemporary public sculpture in a city with an extensive Victorian legacy while Birrell surveys the cultural history of fire. A postscript by Francis McKee looks at the public reaction to the work in the wake of September 11 and Hunter’s more controversial representations of Osama Bin Laden and Monica Lewinsky.