Weird Sculptures Fill The Square Mile

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Weird Sculptures Fill The Square Mile

Every summer, a motley collection of sculptures is grafted onto the City of London's pavements. This year's crop for Sculpture in the City is now in place. Head over to Bishopsgate, and the streets around it, to find the following curiosities.

The plum spot for Sculpture in the City is to hang out here in front of the Gherkin. This year's contribution is from Paul McCarthy and is entitled 'Apple Tree Boy Apple Tree Girl' (the girl figure is not pictured in our shot, to keep things consistent with this year's woeful under-representation of women artists).
Close by, you'll find the mother of all suspicious packages dangling from a tree. It's meant to be an air-dropped parcel, whose contents are listed on a difficult-to-read plaque beneath the tree. This is the work of Ryan Gander and its deeper meaning is hard to translate from the accompanying artspeak. Something about 'the disparity between research based practices and production based practices'. Right.
This is The Black Horse, by Mark Wallinger. It is a black horse — nothing more, nothing less. This is the same artist who was supposed to have a 50 metre-tall horse at Ebbsfleet as a notional Angel of the South. That isn't happening, but at least he's got an equine onto this important crossroads in the City. We've walked past a few times now and this one seems to be getting more attention than some of its peers.
Man in pink shirt: "Hello, security... there's an exploding shed full of light outside my office. What? Art? By Nathaniel Rackowe? Oh. Sorry to trouble you."
Fernando Casasempere contributes this curious cube to the collection. A mix of building blocks and scrunched up forms are arranged into a white cube, which apparently 'evokes not only geology but the remains of a once-grand ruined structure or even a construction site'. Nah. We're thinking 'roughed-up Santa Claus'.
Gavin Turk's 'Ajar' is a leftover from last year's bunch. We don't mind its stubborn persistence, as it's one of the more intriguing works. What does it mean to have a door frame standing in open space? Should you walk through it? Why is the handle so low? Is it a portal to another dimension? Who is that man, and is he part of the artwork? What do the pigeons make of it all? Ah, the mysteries of the Universe.
Karen Tang's Synapsid resembles a triumphant bobsledder with pustulous yellow armpits. In a good way. These two Fenchurch Street workers certainly seem happy enough, eating their lunch beneath the oozing axillae.

Further works, including a piece by Damien Hirst, will be added to the roll-call over the coming weeks. Head on down to the Square Mile any time in 2017 and early 2018 to view the sculptures. Full information on the Sculpture in the City website.

Last Updated 31 August 2017