Anish Kapoor In New Temporary Sculpture Park

M@
By M@ Last edited 152 months ago
Anish Kapoor In New Temporary Sculpture Park
Sky Mirror by Anish Kapoor.
Sky Mirror by Anish Kapoor.
Three Men Walking by Julian Opie.
Three Men Walking by Julian Opie.
Garden Pouf by Franz West.
Garden Pouf by Franz West.

The various plazas and open spaces around the Gherkin are becoming art-ified. A new sculpture park is emerging as part of the City of London Festival. Three pieces are already in place.

Chief among them is Anish Kapoor's Sky Mirror, a polished, concaved dish in Aviva Court (apparently, that's the name of the paved area in front of the Aviva building, next to the Cheesegrater site). The mirror paints a bright spot on the Willis building, recalling Archimedes supposed torching of the Roman fleet using concentrated light from the sun. Let's hope our modern office blocks are made of sterner stuff.

Round the corner, beside St Helen's, you'll find two more installations. Garden Pouf, by Austrian artist Franz West resembles a twisted nail in Oyster blue. You're encouraged to sit on it, perhaps contemplating the similarly spiralling form of the Pinnacle building, set to rise above the courtyard very soon. Elsewhere, Julian Opie's Three Men Walking presents...three men walking, on a drum-shaped screen. We also spied this work at the Barbican Centre over the weekend. A fourth piece, Screen with Folded Arms by Kenneth Armitage, will be installed soon.

There's little online about the new sculpture park, but the wonderful Discovering London blog has a few more details.

Last Updated 05 July 2011