Tagged: sculpture

Hanging around

Some time ago, I missed going to see a certain artwork, so I posted about some other sculpture I passed by instead. Since then, I took the time out to visit the public art that I wanted to post about in the first place: the Dalston House, a commission by the Barbican by Argentine architect Leandro Erlich.

I’d seen this on the news and I couldn’t quite believe how it worked: in an empty lot on a Hackney street, the facade of a 19th century terraced house was laid out on the ground. Above this a mirror at a 45-degree incline reflected this facade. The result? By sitting or lying on various spots on the ground, one could appear to be dangling from windows or scaling the walls. Fantastic, really.

It was very popular, with an usher informing new arrivals to the queue of a 75 minute wait to use the work. On arrival, one had five minutes to use the work, take photos and generally have a lot of fun. The real fun for me was in watching others use the site: it was as much to be looked at as used; once I was able to play on the site, it was a touch difficult to get the most out of it on my own. Families and couples, with some posing and others photographing, had a great time.

Image“75 minutes waiting time? Really?”

dalston_house_2_web_edited-2-1“75 minutes photographing this? Oh, okay then…”

dalston_house_8_web_edited-2Posing on the artwork…

Image…to be reflected in the mirror…

dalston_house_6_web_edited-2…and make fun photos!

dalston_house_9_web_edited-2A welcome addition of a welcome mat.

ImageMy turn! I took a lot of photos of my play on the artwork; this was one of the few that turned out okay.

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However, a nice chap called Paul took my photo at my request.

ImageSuch strength!

Mr. Erlich is known for his immersive works, which I am going to look into reading about, if not seeing, in future. In the meantime, my photographs and others images and videos will remind me of this extraordinary work.

White Horse, mark 1

Cycling home from a night shift, I chanced by a sculpture just off The Mall by the British Council offices: Mark Wallinger‘s White Horse.

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A life sized sculpture of a horse on a wide dais, Mark Wallinger’s sculpture is a small scale version of a somewhat larger project, the Ebbsfleet Landmark Project, of a white horse some 50 metres high, 33 times life size, to be built in the Ebbsfleet Valley in Kent.

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While the Landmark Project is in limbo because of the current financial crisis, this beautiful work is enough for me. I became a fan of Wallinger after seeing his 1999 work Ecce Homo on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. Being raised a catholic, I was amazed at the depiction of Christ as a humble, ordinary man; not oversized, but still powerful. His placing on the plinth, standing towards one edge, was also striking.

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The same thing happens here, with the White Horse placed just so, off centre and to the rear of the dais, calm and in control.

While I’ve continued to enjoy Wallinger’s work, I was somewhat shocked to find out that this sculpture has been in place since March. Are there any other lesser known, but still fantastic works of public art in London that I should get to see soon?

Untamed

I should have made a visit to a different display of public art this week, but odd circumstances led me to an exhibition in Mayfair’s sunny Berkeley Square.

Displayed were sculptures by Dylan Lewis from an exhibition called Untamed, held by Christie’s auctioneers. The artist had been exploring the wilderness of the human psyche and the animal / human interface in his previous work.

The result? Dynamic sculptures, intergrating human and animal, wrapped in ancient myth. It looked like gods of our imagination had touched down in the city.

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In the clouds

This is an artwork called Cloud: Metéoros, by husband and wife team Lucy and Jorge Orta. It’s comprised of two cloud-like structures, suspended from the roof of St. Pancras International station by wires. When I read about this sculpture I knew that I had to visit and photograph it before too long.

Facing the end of the Eurostar platforms, the cloud forms are laden with what seem like travellers who have been on a similar train journey.

The awfully nice staff at the Searcy’s champagne bar let me shoot from a decent angle in their establishment, but I could never get the angle I wanted: straight on. For this, I think I would need to be on the Eurostar platforms themselves. And to do that? Maybe there’s another trip to Paris, Brussels or Lille on the cards…