To commemorate the first death anniversary of the celebrated singer, Sinéad O’Connor, The National Wax Museum revealed a statue dedicated to her on July 26th. A close friend of O’Connor and the proprietor of the museum, Paddy Dunning commissioned the statue which was crafted by wax sculptor, PJ Heraghty. The inspiration behind the statue was O’Connor’s acclaimed video for her hit single, ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’.
The song topped the charts in both the UK and Ireland for several weeks in 1990, catapulting O’Connor to fame. The Dublin native was not just known for her musical accomplishments but also for her candour about her mental health challenges and her audacious criticism of the Catholic Church.
Dunning shared that the aim of creating the statue was to encapsulate a point of time where O’Connor filmed the music video for ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’. She was dressed in sombre black during the video that saw her deliver a heartfelt, pitch-perfect performance complete with a genuine tear, which touched audiences far and wide. This moment of O’Connor’s rise to international fame was chosen to be crystallised in the statue.
Detailed attention was paid to creating the expressive face of the statue to embody O’Connor’s earnest demeanour. According to PJ Heraghty, crafting a wax statue is a laborious process requiring at least three months. It begins with sculpting clay from multiple angles, followed by casting it in wax and then meticulously working on the detailing aspect. The features and proportions need to be perfect, a task that presents a considerable challenge, particularly while sculpting females as their form is more intricate, shared Heraghty.
O’Connor, who was 56 years old, passed away from natural causes in her residence in London last year on July 26th.