Love and Kisses

Abbotshaugh Sentinel, also known as Love and Kisses, is a large-scale public artwork by Scottish artist Jephson Robb, created as part of The Helix project near Falkirk. Located within Abbotshaugh Community Woodland, the sculpture was conceived as part of the wider regeneration of the area's green spaces and was developed with input from residents of the surrounding communities.

The sculpture takes inspiration from a laurel leaf, referencing Falkirk's Roman heritage and the traditional association of the laurel with victory. Its elongated, curving form can also be interpreted differently depending on the viewing angle: as a scar representing healing, as a heart from certain perspectives, and as a pair of lips when viewed from above.

Constructed from weathering steel, the sculpture has approximately 151 square meters of external steel surface and weighs around 20.8 tonnes. Its complex three-dimensional form was divided into a series of large prefabricated sections to enable production, transport, and final assembly in Scotland.

CIG was responsible for the engineering, material procurement, production, prefabrication, transport, and on-site assembly of the steel structure. Our work included shell plate calculations, production data, assembly drawings, cutting the steel components, 3D cold forming of the skin plates, fabrication of the internal structure, and sandblasting. The sculpture was prefabricated in approximately eight to ten sections at our facility in Groningen before being transported to Falkirk, where CIG provided welding and technical assistance for the final assembly and finishing of the structure.