RISE (sculpture)

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

RISE is a large public art sculpture in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was designed by Wolfgang Buttress and sits on top of the Broadway Roundabout above the A12 Westlink. The piece stands 37.5 meters tall and has a diameter of 30 meters, making it the biggest public sculpture in the city. It features a geodesic inner sphere suspended inside a white and silver outer sphere, with angled steel supports meant to evoke the bog reeds that once grew in the area.

The sculpture is sometimes nicknamed “Balls of the Falls” because of its location near the Falls Road and its two round shapes. It was commissioned by Belfast City Council as part of a road-improvement scheme and sits at a busy junction used by about 80,000 cars a day.

RISE was funded by several groups, including the Department for Social Development, the National Lottery’s Big Lottery Fund, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and Belfast City Council. Construction began in 2009 but faced delays, and the project was completed in September 2011. The final cost was around £486,000.

In 2009, local people—including schoolchildren and seniors—took part in workshops to learn about the sculpture and what it means for Belfast. The project aimed to be viewable from all sides so it could be appreciated by people of different backgrounds and beliefs.