In the summer of 2013, you may remember my posts (Gromit Unleashed Part One and Gromit Unleashed Part Two) about visiting the charity art sculpture trail in Bristol known as "Gromit Unleashed", based on the character of the Aardman Animations shorts "Wallace & Gromit". Gromit is the dog character, and he was the star of the sculpture trail, which ended up raising 2.35 million pounds in charity. The following year, they brought the sculpture trail to Hong Kong, but it failed to capture the attention that it had in Bristol, and a few of the sculptures never received a bid. These sculptures returned to Bristol at the beginning of the month and will be on display until the beginning of April for visitors to enjoy.
In addition to the Hong Kong Gromits, a super-sized four-metre tall robotic Gromit watches over the front of Cribbs Causeway mall in Bristol, where the "Gromit Unleashed" shop is. It is here that the Hong Kong sculptures can be seen. The shop opened in the summer of 2013 and was meant to be temporary while the sculpture trail was on, but the success of this sculpture trail and the merchandise has permitted it to stay open. It still receives many visitors and contains a lot of merchandise and collectable sculptures as well as events for children.
The large sculpture is based on the GRMT02 sculpture by Gavin Strange. The original was located in the Cribbs Causeway shop for visitors to see along with over a dozen others. Photographs of these unsold Gromits from the Hong Kong trail in 2014 can be seen below. The artist and information panels are unfortunately not on the website, and I'd have photographed all of the boards to get the details and information about them had I known this.
The final statue below was created similarly to an original on the Bristol trail in 2013. It states the facts of the original trail, including the amount raised for charity and how much it brought to the economy as well as other facts.
The Hong Konh Gromits can be seen until 10th April in the Cribbs Causeway "Gromit Unleashed" shop in the middle of the mall. The shop is open 9:30-9:00 Monday-Friday, 9:00-8:00 on Saturday and 11:00-5:00 on Sunday. It is free to see the scuptures, but a donation is suggested. We were not pressured into donations, but we did buy merchandise while we were there, and I believe that at least some of this goes to charity.
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