In 2008 to co-incide with Liverpool being crowned European Capital
of Culture. The Liverpool Culture Company and Phil Redmond OBE
worked with Wild in Art to create a cultural event in which local
people could be involved not just in its consumption, but also its
production. The city had long been home to an 8 ton sculpture
designed
by Manhattan-based Japanese artist Taro Chiezo,
originally created for the 1998 ArtTransPennine Exhibition. His
“Superlambanana” sculpture is a cross between a
banana and a lamb and is intended as a comment on
the dangers of genetic engineering.
Superlambanana's design is also heavily influenced by the history
of Liverpool itself, as historically both sheep and bananas were
common cargos in the city's docks. The eventual idea settled
on, was to build upon the Superlambanana artwork, which had over
time come to be recognised as a symbol of Liverpool in
itself. As a result 124 mini-SuperLambananas were created,
each of which acted as a blank slate, on which various groups
throughout the city could develop and design their own cultural
contribution the city's celebrations.
Ilsa was commissioned by Wild in Art to work upon three, two metre
high replicas, The first “Peel” was one of Ilsas own original
designs, and depicted a three dimensional adaptation in fibreglass
of the SLBs tail (banana) being literally peeled. The design was
developed to celebrate the vibrancy, playfulness and humour of
Liverpool and its people. Aside from this version, Ilsa also worked
upon two other designs for United Utilities (local water company)
which included a 3D translation of a sketch produced by
an employees daughter which combined natural scenery with a bicycle
to make reference to a water cycle and the United Utilities
corporate logo painted across another of the
forms.