The Tower of Discovery was made for Anthony Caro's exhibition in the Duveen Galleries at the Tate Gallery, at the suggestion of the Director, Nicholas Serota. 'Nick knew that he wanted a very long sculpture of mine in the south gallery and some other sculptures in the north gallery, and I said "What are we going to do in the middle?" and he said "You are going to make a Tower".' Caro had already made a tower for children and wanted to make this one in wood, 'but to make it in wood of that size would be like building a house. I did look into it, but it was impractical so I made it in steel.'

He had problems because his studio is just the height of the tower, but as he had all the metal to hand he made the sculpture in sections in the studio, and finally assembled it outside in the courtyard. 'The final view was at the very end. I was very close to it and saw every little bit being done and probably interfered too much and got into too much detail, but learnt a lot from doing it that way. It is intended to be interacted upon by the public, and something that is not only aesthetic but also to do with body language. In the making we had to be careful that it did not become too much like architecture and not like this contorting thing where you have to find your way in and around it, exploring it. I had always thought that if you were to put a limit on sculpture it would be that sculpture is something that you are outside of, but why?'

The Tower of Discovery, together with the other pieces shown in the Duveen Galleries, were all made at much the same time, when Caro was looking at the general shape of things, their architecture and their geometry and at the same time going into much more baroque detail. Recent works, such as the Spirals at Dean Clough, were made more as an architect might work, from a small model and drawings, and constructed under his constant supervision. Caro feels that the Tower, built in his studio, benefited from being made in an intimate way, almost under the microscope. 'Furthermore, it was also an in and out sculpture which is what I was aiming for. The trees at Goodwood help it to be a discovery from outside as well as inside. I like the way you go through trees and there is the sculpture, so it isn't only about discovering the inside of it, but also coming through this forest and finding this big structure half hidden.'