However plain and familiar its form might be, the delicate pointed pillar with its hi-tech, lozenge-shape patterned shell of carbon fibre resembles an alien presence standing at the dusty fork in the path. In ancient Egypt, monolithic obelisks originally represented a link to the world of gods; later, Roman conquerors removed them and installed them as trophies of victory in prominent places around their empire. In more modern times, obelisks have performed cartographic functions by marking distances. Even if the site and size of this sculpture seem less prominent than the landmarks on top of the waste tips, McBride’s work nonetheless suggests diverse references to its location.
By using carbon the artist alludes, on the one hand, to the hi-tech material and to progress-driven civilisation, while, on the other, carbon also denotes the geological era in which coal was formed, thereby referring quite simply to the origins of industrialisation. Not least of all, as this work marks the junction of several cycle paths between the Rhine-Herne Canal and the former Emscher wastewater canal, McBride is also playing on the current period of cultural transformation in the Ruhr region.