Maxine Schaffer
For her work “Buckhorn Plantain”, in painted steel, the winner of the 2007 award was Maxine Schaffer from the Royal College of Art Sculpture School .
Minutes before the ceremony to bestow the 2007 Friends of Battersea Park Sculpture Award, Friends chairman Philip Wright OBE could be seen hurriedly polishing the winning installation, “Weeds,” with a paper napkin: Parks maintenance had been through the area earlier with a strimmer, leaving a fine coating of dust on the installation’s glossy surface. It was a dainty, delicate finish to a sometimes rough-and-tumble process. It began in a studio at the Royal College of Sculpture, last February, when the Friends Committee selected Maxine Schaffer’s entry, “Weeds,” over fifteen very strong competitors for the honour of being displayed in Battersea Park for one year. The US-born Schaffer studied fine art at Chelsea College and then went directly from there to the Royal College of Sculpture: “It’s sort of been non-stop, really,” she says. Indeed, Wright noted that Schaffer had made a special journey back from America to supervise the installation and to be present at the ceremony “We are very grateful to her for meeting the many challenges created by the competition and for producing such an impressive and iconic result,” Wright said. “Her close identity with the Park and use of a Festival of Britain colour has created a splendid monument to every
gardener’s worst nightmare.”