Tornado by Fiona Banner is a new co-commission by Locus+ and Great North Run Culture.

Fiona Banner’s pro­posal involves the phys­ical and con­cep­tual trans­form­a­tion of a recently decom­mis­sioned RAF Tornado jet fighter cast as a large, single bell, util­iz­ing the metal from the fuselage.

Initially, the bell, will be situ­ated in a busy pub­lic space to coin­cide with the Cultural Olympiad’s Open Weekend of July 24 / 25. Individuals, fam­il­ies, schools and sports groups will be invited to activ­ate or ‘play’ it.

The Tornado was col­lec­ted on 30.04.10 and is cur­rently being stripped down into its com­pon­ent metal parts before going through the smelt­ing processes.

The cock­pit and remain­ing bulky parts have since been ‘fragged’. The first pre-smelt has happened and the Tornado has been turned into 246 Aluminium ingots.

An inter­view with Fiona Banner appeared in the Guardian newspaper.

via Locus+.