LONDON.- Sculpture in the City, the City of London’s annual public art programme set amongst iconic architectural landmarks has installed the 18 artworks which make up this year’s outdoor sculpture park in the Square Mile.
The exhibition includes works from internationally renowned artists including Sarah Lucas, Thomas J Price, Sean Scully and Nancy Rubins while also introducing three new commissioned works. The artworks are being displayed close to some of the City’s most famous buildings, including 30 St Mary Axe (‘the Gherkin), The Leadenhall Building (the ‘Cheesegrater’), as well as new locations for this, including historic corners of the City, Heneage Lane and Hartsthorn Alley.
For Sculpture in the City’s eighth edition, the artworks are spread further than ever across the Square Mile, including four new locations and ranging greatly in form and scale. To tie in with celebrations taking place this year to mark the centenary of female suffrage, nine of the artworks have been created by emerging and established female international artists, supported by the City of London Corporation’s Women: Work & Power campaign.
In 2018, Sculpture in the City includes two sound projects, a new venture for this year’s edition, challenging the idea of public art. Marina Abramovic’s Tree (1972) presents visitors with the sound of birdsong, with an insistent, distorted repetition, enclosed within a tree at 99 Bishopsgate. Miroslaw Balka’s ‘The Great Escape,’ the second sound piece is located in Hartsthorn Alley and features the iconic film’s theme tune being whistled repeatedly, each time providing a slightly different rendition.
Sarah Lucas’ life-sized bronze Clydesdale horse Perceval (2006), an homage to English culture, is being displayed at Cullum Street. Adjacent to St Helen’s churchyard, Nancy Rubins presents her Crocodylius Philodendrus, (2016-17) a large-scale bouquet-like arrangement comprised of a wide range of animal forms cast in iron, bronze, brass and aluminium. Across the street, neighbouring the Leadenhall Building, Jean-Luc Moulène presents Body (2011), a glossy aerodynamic form composed of twelve colourful sections, celebrating artistic and industrial reflections on form and mobility. Next to the Gherkin, Gabriel Lester’s The Adventurer, 2014, is a site-specific work presenting an infinite maze of rotating poster designs incorporated into a seating structure.
Made by one of the two Royal Academicians participating this year, Stack Blues (2017), a three-dimensional abstract sculpture from Sean Scully’s longstanding series, Landline, is being present outside Willis Towers. In a walkway to the side of the Gherkin, Tracey Emin’s neon work Your Lips Moved Across My Face (2015), highlights the power of intimate and cryptic messaging, replicating the lines of the artist’s script as it appears on paper. Karen Tang’s interactive and playful sculpture, Synapsid (2014) will remain on view this year drawing the viewer into its apertures.
Accompanying these works is Shaun C Badham’s I’M STAYING (2014), a neon artwork situated in Leadenhall Market, a unique fit mirroring the historic market’s resilience over the centuries as the landscape around it has changed. Further towards the Cheesegrater, Thomas J Price’s three large cast aluminium heads, Numen (Shifting Votive) One, Two and Three (2016) greet visitors on the way to Richard Rome’s Pepper Rock at the corner of Bishopsgate and Wormwood Street, close to David Annesley’s large coloured geometric abstract sculpture, Untitled (1969).
This year, three new artworks by female artists are being exhibited for the first time, two commissions and one new site-specific work which is part of a series. Jyll Bradley's Opening the Air in St Helen's Square, is a three dimensional drawing made up of a field of fluorescent Plexiglas etchings. In a City dominated by glass structures, this work reflects upon the fact that the first ‘glasshouses’ were built for green growth. In Leadenhall Market, Amanda Lwin presents A Worldwide Web of Somewheres, a textile map of the City of London with lines that highlight the underground infrastructure in the City, which follows on from her series Capricious Cartography. Finally, Clare Jarrett, displays Sari Garden, a work consisting of lengths of vibrant Indian sari material hanging between Victorian lampposts.
Further down the road, visitors are able to see Juliana Cerqueira Leite’s three-metre-tall obelisk Climb (2011) in Mitre Square, a new ‘pocket-park’ in the City. At Cunard Place, Michail Pirgelis presents his UNIVRS (2012/2018), a cross-section of an airplane separated from its original context.
Participating artists for Sculpture in the City 2018 are: Marina Abramovic, David Annesley, Shaun C Badham, Miroslaw Balka, Jyll Bradley, Tracey Emin CBE RA, Clare Jarrett, Juliana Cerqueira Leite, Gabriel Lester, Sarah Lucas, Amanda Lwin, Jean-Luc Moulène, Michail Pirgelis, Thomas J Price, Richard Rome, Nancy Rubins, Sean Scully RA and Karen Tang.
Sculpture in the City has built a rapport with many who live in, work in and visit the City of London. Over the past eight years, Sculpture in the City has gained attention for bringing both established international artists and rising stars to a broad public. With works juxtaposed against the tall buildings in the Square Mile, this open-air exhibition not only enriches the workday experience of City workers, but draws cultural visitors into this most ancient part of the city.
Graham Packham, Chairman of the City of London Corporation’s Culture, Heritage and Libraries Committee, said: ‘Sculpture in the City is hugely popular with workers, residents and visitors in the Square Mile, and is underpinned by a successful partnership forged between the City of London Corporation, the art world, and local businesses. These leading art works enliven the Square Mile, generate debate among those who view them, and our support for Sculpture in the City underlines our commitment to promoting the arts and culture in the City.’
