Roundabout artist mystery solved

When out-of-work plasterer Dan Smith wanted to highlight his struggle to find another job, he came up with a unique way to advertise the fact.

For the 25-year-old has stepped forward as the mystery artist who left two sculptures made of bicycle parts on Jiggers Bank roundabout in Telford. They represented an alien searching for employment.

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Drivers had been left bemused by the sculptures which appeared overnight on the busy roundabout between Ironbridge and Horsehay over the last couple of weeks.

The first came complete with a sign saying “Giz a Job” while the second was carrying a knapsack - a handkerchief on the end of a stick.

Mr Smith, of Curlew Drive, Leegomery, who lost his job a couple of months ago, said he was out of work and unable to find a job.

He added: “The first one was because I have not got a job. I was a plasterer and I was looking for work and couldn’t find work.

“It was made from my father-in-law, Pete Harris’s old bike. I used to be a plasterer with him, but he lost his job as well with the market going bad.”

Mr Smith said: “In the first sculpture the figure was supposed to be looking sad and miserable because of the work situation.”

The former pupil of The Lord Silkin School in Stirchley, works two days a week at Arty Party at All Saints Church Hall, working with adults with learning disabilities.

He said he had decided on the Jiggers’ Bank location when he came across a story about the Tour of Britain bike race going past the island a few weeks ago.

He made the second sculpture using the first one, adding a cone to make it taller, as well as spray painting it black.

“The second sculpture was called ‘Gone looking for a job’,” he said.

“I started getting some interviews and application forms coming through the post, so I gave my alien a satchel and he went looking for a job.

“I put it on the same roundabout because the last one was there, so people recognised it was the same artist.”

He said he had collected the sculptures and taken them home a few days after putting them up so Telford & Wrekin Council had not been forced to pay out any money to have them removed.

By Lisa Rowley