Lily Wales
Blue Streak
Working with photomontage, Birmingham-based artist Lily Wales creates 2D and sculptural works that reference the language of military weaponry. During her residency, Lily will explore the history of ‘Blue Streak’, a ballistic missile developed in Britain in the late 1950s. The key that formed part of the firing mechanism was manufactured locally by Century Locks in Willenhall.
Due to spiralling costs and political opposition the Blue Streak programme was cancelled in 1960 and the missile was re-appropriated to launch satellites as part of Europe’s bid to enter the Space Race. It was during this time that Blue Streak caught the public’s imagination when a photograph taken at the missile test site in Woomera, South Australia, captured a mysterious figure that has become know as the ‘Solway Spaceman’.
Inspired by these incarnations of the Blue Streak missile, Lily will produce new work utilising photomontage, sculpture, coding and melted aluminium.