“I stood on a 240 million year old mountain
in Africa and watched the 4.6 billion year old sun descend below the horizon.
As the light diminished, the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way began to glow
in the night sky. Our galaxy extends for 100,000 light years and is part of a
universe consisting of hundreds of billions of galaxies.

It was at that moment I began to grasp the
narrowness of consciousness, the vastness of time and the transience of
humanity.” 

Simon Gudgeon

Search for Enlightenment, by Simon Gudgeon
was unveiled at Riverside Walk Garden, Millbank, London, next to Tate Britain.
The sculpture is exhibited as part of the Westminster City of Sculpture
Festival, 2010-2012. Henry Moore’s ‘Locking Piece’ of 1963-4, sited nearby, is
on loan to the Garden from Tate Britain and the Henry Moore Foundation. The
surrounding area, which is home to Tate Britain, Chelsea College of Art &
Design and the ‘Parade Ground’ outdoor sculpture gallery, has become a site of
increasing importance for visual arts in London. After being exhibited on
Millbank the sculpture was moved to a permanent home on Carriageway Drive,
outside One Hyde Park, the most prestigious address in London.

Since Simon Gudgeon created Search for
Enlightenment in 2010, the piece has become very meaningful to many people. A
smaller version of the monumental 2.2m high work, which is cast in bronze, was
presented to the Duke of Edinburgh in 2011 for his 90th Birthday at Buckingham
Palace, at the 24th Anniversary Dinner of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award World
Fellowship