Rootes sculpture listed as object of artistic and historical interest

The Rootes Red Sculpture has received a Grade II Heritage Listing as an object of artistic and historical interest.

Along with 40 other monuments across the country, the statue is now considered to be part of English National Heritage and is to be preserved for future generations of Rootes inhabitants.

Officially known as 3B Series No 1 and constructed in 1968, the sculpture is a typical example of its author Bernard Schottlander’s breakthrough geometric style.

Its components allegedly spell out the word T.O.I.L. if viewed from one of Rootes’s highest windows.
For many students however its location between Rootes and the Student Union made it a symbol of freedom and spontaneity, as they would suspend themselves from its rings following a particularly wild Pop adventure.

Image: University of Warwick Art Collection

Yaseen Ravat, a first-year Economics student, commented on the listing, saying that he thought “it was something that drunk people climbed on after Pop”.

First-year Politics and Sociology student Lourenco Gonçalves confirmed that he too has seen drunk people scaling it.

I thought it was just something that drunk people climbed on after Pop.

However, he added: “I like that it is very square and round.”

His visiting friend, Dubus Anthony, commented positively on the aesthetics of the statue, pointing out that “it is such a contrasting colour, with all the green around it”.

It is not yet clear whether the listing means that alcohol-fuelled Pop pilgrimages will have to end or whether its sturdy frame can stand new generations of students.