As public inquiry gets under way, sculpture commemorates Grenfell Tower tragedy

The first phase of the Grenfell public inquiry, ordered by the UK's prime minister Theresa May, opened yesterday (21 May) focusing on the circumstances that led to the tragic fire in which 71 people died last June. The creator of a sculpture based on the fire plans to unveil the piece in Kensington and Chelsea town hall (albeit in an impromptu manner) on the eve of the first anniversary of the blaze. The work, which depicts the building’s skeleton in black ceramic, is the architect and ceramicist Craig More’s personal reaction to the tragedy. The sculpture “provoked a lot of conversation” when he displayed it in the window of his office on Hornsey Road in Holloway, north London. “I’ve called it Cage, in reference to the horrific stories of trapped people on upper floors and the gridded form, which resembles a burned rib cage,” he says. The artist Khadija Saye, who showed her work at last year’s Venice Biennale, died in the fire.