Not terribly easy to flip at that size. Courtesy Red House.

Giant tools, Roman keys and a steel egg are amongst the sculptures on show at a new exhibition at the Red House Museum and Gardens in Christchurch, Hampshire. Entitled Sculptures, Signs and Seats, the showcase of works by Richard Farrington will be on display until March 5.

Richard’s sculptures are to be found in many public places all over Britain, from the pit towns of the north to Hampshire’s cricket ground in Southampton. Jackstar, at Tipner Lake in Portsmouth, is typical of Richard’s style, enlarging an everyday object (in this case a jack) to emphasise its form and shape.

Dig this. Courtesy Red House.

“The common theme of this exhibition is looking again at objects,” said Nick Suffolk, Exhibitions Officer. “You see them made out of a different material and it makes you think about it in more detail.”

And so, the Red House garden provides the setting for a huge needle and thread, seemingly sewing the earth to the trees, and a huge garden fork and trowel, alarmingly standing almost 10 feet tall. Outside the building, visitors will also come across the Crown Jewels – gigantic bolt cutters and a hammer and nail (Cockney rhyming slang for tools, get it?).

Giant tools, Crown Jewels. Courtesy Red House.

Farrington works mainly in steel, and has been doing so since he graduated from Bath Academy of Art in 1978. He builds his public art works, sculptures, signs and seats in a medieval barn in Dockenfield, though they land up all over the south coast and elsewhere.

The Red House exhibition includes some unusual wooden works. The wooden Guardians are based on some Roman keys from a collection in France. There is also an interactive exhibit, comprising giant wishbones, which visitors can hang their wishes on. The exhibition has been touring, so there are already lots of wishes to see. Whether hanging them on Richard’s sculpture will have any positive effect is yet to be seen, but looking at his works is certainly an eye-opener.

The opposite of bonsai tools. Courtesy Red House.