The location of the artwork
is above the entrance to St. Stephen's Hall.
And at the turn of the 20th Century,
that was one of the main thoroughfares for women
to go through to meet their MPs and deliver petitions.
What I wanted to do was to create an open
portcullis-like structure above the doorway
that the glass hangs on
to show that it's open.
That women are there now.
And that we can go in and we are here to stay.
I'm Ian Musson. The company is Musson Engineering Ltd.
I work with my son Colin.
He and I are the directors of that company.
And, we do specialist engineering projects.
Not run of the mill things, nor mass production things.
In fact, we sometimes joke that we only do the things
that people can't buy at Tesco's.
It has to be slightly unusual for us
to be involved as a rule.
And this project is definitely unusual.
We knew that it had to be sub-divided
into several different sections
because of a number of different disciplines
were going to be involved in it's manufacture.
To that end, we decided which pieces were going
to be made from aluminium, stainless steel,
and various other things.
And also how those were going to be produced.
Having gone though that, we were able
to choose a range of subcontractors
who's equipment was best suited
to some of those operations like
laser cutting, waterjet cutting, heavy folding,
and various other things.
My name's Michael Scott from Westcut Engineering.
We're currently undertaking a job on behalf of
the House of Parliament sculpture.
We are fortunate here to have a waterjet machine.
It cuts with a mixture of water and sand.
We work with a lot of artists and we find
each job is completely different to the last.
So this particular piece we're using
10mil thick, 6082 aluminium.
It's compiled of 33 individual pieces.
And it's gonna take us between 10 and 12 hours to produce.
The symbol for women is the circle and the cross.
And what I wanted to do was to reinforce
the totality of the artwork by having many crosses
between the glass circles.
And that reinforces the whole symbolism
for the women's movement
and the power of women within the artwork.
We are today at J + S Laser Profiles Ltd.
We've worked with them for many years.
We prepare the drawings in fine detail on the computer.
The trust between the two companies is such,
that when we send the computer information through,
they don't literally have to examine it.
They're able to feed that straight
into some of their machinery.
So we've already done the expression
of the coordinates and so on.
And they are then able to feed that to their machinery
and use the laser cutters and folders
to produce exactly what we require.
And this particular project involved a number
of quite difficult forming and cutting operations.
Which they've been able to deal with very well.
From the very beginning, we were both very pleased indeed
to be involved it's a project we believe in anyway.
And we thought Mary's concept was absolutely first class.
And to try and find a way of dealing with the engineering,
in such a way that in no area did it adversely affect
the artwork or it's aim.
I hope that we've, to a degree, achieved that.
Not always easily.
We're here in this warehouse putting in
the temporary installation of New Dawn.
So this is the first time we see it all together.
The temporary installation is really important
because it allows us to practise the installation.
But also, to programme New Dawn
because the lighting is something
that has to be programmed by the artist
to make sure it's going to look like she wants it to.
And so we can do it here at leisure
before we do the proper installation.
Today, we have been putting up
the first of the LED panels.
Which is a fairly key moment for us
to make sure that the wiring that we've put in place
is correct and that it works.
We've got 168 of these panels to install.
And so there are twice as many wires coming out.
And it's as been a day whereby we plugged everything in
and it all worked the first time which was pleasing
and obviously exactly how we planned.
This is a very large piece of art.
It's not just a large painting on canvas,
which are difficult enough to install.
But this has got an electricity supply, computer supply.
It's made of metal and glass.
Glass is obviously very fragile.
The pieces of metal are huge.
These are very long pieces of metal.
So trying to get all of that
to this very high-up installation site,
way above a doorway, right at ceiling height at the end
of Westminister Hall, is going to be very challenging.
It's something that we wanna get right.
And so practising here really allows us
to work out all the difficulties and solve them all.
The moment when I realised that this was actually
a piece of art and not just the technical challenge
which I've enjoyed doing, is when I saw all the pieces
of glass laid out on the floor.
And, just the stunningness of them
and comparing it with the photographs that had inspired Mary
back when she was doing the research for the piece.
You suddenly, completely got it.
It just made sense.
I have been working with a team of people
for the last two weeks and so we've got
the structure on the wall now.
I started a year and a half ago with some drawings.
Even though it's always felt like my piece of work.
I've had to consult and work with the metal engineers.
And the lighting designer and different manufacturing
processes to actually create this.
So, we've gone away from the concept
and looked at the detail of every nut
and bolt has been thought about.
It's the first time that I've been able
to see all the parts together.
As the build goes on, I feel more and more relaxed
because I'm beginning to see my
artwork coming together again.
The glass work was fantastic to see all in position.
But then, it's only when we got the light sheet behind it
and we actually started putting light through them
that the colours are just so vibrant and lovely
and they completely change.
And we've got five panels up at the moment.
There are 163 more to go.
When they're in place, it's just going to be breathtaking.
Just can't wait. It's gonna be stunning.