Richard Wilson new commissions...

Slipstream by Richard Wilson

Sculptor Richard Wilson (b.1953) and creator of Turning the Place Over for Liverpool Biennial, is to create a new work, Slipstream, for the Covered Court of Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport when it opens in 2014. The model for the work will be on display at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition this summer.

Wilson described the work on Front Row on Radio 4 by saying something along these lines:
'Imagine filling the Terminal with clay, then taking an aeroplane and throwing it [through the space] so it spirals and twists its way through the clay, it will leave a void, and then imagine filling that void with plaster, that's what we're making, but we're making it like an aeroplane, in polished aluminium.'

At more than 70m (230ft) long and weighing 77 tonnes (77,000kg), it is said to be the longest permanent sculpture in Europe. According to Wilson it will be bigger than an A300 airbus, and nearly as long as 9 old Routemaster buses.
To read an article about the project, visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-18145268

The maquette for Hang on a minute lads, I've got a great idea by Richard Wilson

Wilson is also completing a temporary commission called Hang on a minute lads, I've got a great idea for the roof of the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea this summer, which is perhaps more interesting and certainly less corporate.

The work, whose title is a quote from the cult British 1969 film The Italian Job consists of a full-size model of a coach hanging over the edge of the roof of the famous Modernist building, recreating the end of the film where Michael Caine and his posse of robbers are stuck at the wrong end of the bus to the gold bullion they've just stolen as it teeters over a cliff.
Last year, DLWP hosted Antony Gormley's work Critical Mass on the roof, whereby 60 cast-iron figures based on the sculptor's body were displayed.

Wilson's work has a heavy nod to the Olympics with the colours of the bus and the gold reference, and will form part of the Cultural Olympiad, and is due to be installed at the De La Warr Pavilion at the end of June 2012.

You can watch a short video where Wilson talks about the limited edition models available here: http://vimeo.com/42193456 A snip at £1,800.

Color Jam comes to Chicago

Concept design for Color Jam

American artist Jessica Stockholder (b.1959) has been commissioned to produce Color Jam, a site specific installation which will open on State Street, Chicago in June. Installation is due to start on 28 May.


According to the artist, the idea is to create “an experience that elicits joy and encourages the recognition that things might be otherwise.” As people approach the prominently-located corner, flashes of colour will appear transforming the area from black and white to technicolour, with abstract shapes reaching the clouds on a skyscraper or stripes underfoot on the pavement. Intensifying upon reaching the intersection hosting the project, the four buildings will be jammed with a “volume of color,” as geometric shapes spill down facades onto the pavement, consuming the traffic lanes and pavement.

Flooded Chambers Maid by Jessica Stockholder, Madison Square Park, 2009

Although an experienced artist who has been working for more than 25 years, Jessica is a relative newcomer to public art. However, she previously created Flooded Chambers Maid, a temporary commission for Madison Square Park in 2009 (pictured above) using industrial materials and brightly coloured ready-made objects. To read more about, and view more images of the project, visit: http://www.jessicastockholder.info/albums/flooded-chambers-maid


Stockholder's site specific installations cross the traditional boundaries of painting and sculpture, and her work can be found in collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Whitney Museum of American Art. 


To read the full source article on MutualArt.com visit: http://www.mutualart.com/OpenArticle/Color-Jam-in-Chicago/70A74FB95F4F776B

Mutual Art also features an interesting article about public art on show around the world this summer: http://www.mutualart.com/OpenArticle/MutualArt/75A4DBC44E026B28/ 

HOUSE Festival in Brighton open til 27th May

Skip by David Batchelor. Photo: Bernard G Mills

HOUSE festival, which is now in its 4th year, opened in Brighton on 5th May and brings a series of new contemporary visual art commissions to the streets and public spaces of the city until Sunday 27th May.


HOUSE is the curated visual art arm of Brighton and Hove's Artists Open Houses which originally began in 1982 when it was set up by Fiveways artist Ned Hoskin. It is now a Brighton institution whereby people can see and buy work directly from artists in their homes. Artists Open Houses (AOH) was formally set up in 2004 by a group of Open House artists, with the aim of producing a brochure uniting all the individual trails around Brighton. 


The HOUSE festival is this year led by renowned British artist David Batchelor who has created two new commissions for Brighton. These include Skip and the Brighton Festival co-commission, Brighton Palermo remix, which can be viewed Wed to Sun 12.00 - 18.00 at The Regency Town House, 13 Brunswick Square, Hove BN3 1EH. Skip is on display outside Moshi Moshi in Bartholomew Square, Brighton BN1 1JS. 


Artists who have completed satellite commissions for HOUSE include Robin Blackledge, Caroline le Breton, Deb Bowness, Helene Kazan and CINECITY with Anna Deamer.


You can download a copy of the brochure at: http://www.aoh.org.uk/domains/aoh.org.uk/local/media/images/medium/HOUSE2012_Brochure_1_.pdf 

Tatton Park Biennial opens to the public

Whatever happens, I love you by David Cotterrell. Photo: Thierry Bal

The third Tatton Park Biennial in Cheshire opened to the public on 12 May 2012 and will be open every day between 10am and 7pm until 30th September 2012. The Biennial began in 2008 and is curated by gallerist Danielle Arnaud and Jordan Kaplan.


The 2012 Biennial, 'Flights of Fancy', takes the human urge to fly as its theme and includes 15 new artist commissions sited in and around the grounds, parkland and formal gardens of Tatton Park, as well as inside its mansion. 

Gleaners of the Infocalypse by Juneau Projects. Photo: Thierry Bal

This year the commissions include a number of fascinating structures alongside films and visuals by Aura Satz, Simon Faithfull, David Cotterrell, Jem Finer and Dinu Li. The films can be seen on-site in an ISO container, a caravan, a spaceship and a miniature planetarium, as well as on a brass plate in Tatton's Music Room. 

Empty Nest by Hilary Jack. Photo: Thierry Bal

There is a £5 car entry charge to Tatton Park which also applies to National Trust members (who have free entry to the Mansion and Formal Gardens). A Totally Tatton ticket is recommended for visitors to the Biennial, which allows entry to the Formal Gardens and Mansion, both of which exhibit Biennial artwork along with the parkland. This ticket also allows entry to Tatton’s farm. Adult £10; Children (4-15) £5;  Family (2 adults + 3 children) £25. Single attraction entry ticket: Adult £5.50, Child £3.50, Family £14.50

For more details visit: http://www.tattonparkbiennial.com/visit/

Daniel Buren artwork opens in Paris

Photo: Francois Mori/AP

French septugenarian conceptual artist Daniel Buren(b.1938)'s temporary commission Excentrique(s), opens to the public tomorrow (10th May) at the Grand Palais in Paris. It is the fifth so-called Monumenta site-specific commission for the site and will be on display until 21st June 2012. Daniel Buren follows in the illustrious footsteps of the previous commissions by Anselm Kiefer, Richard Serra, Christian Boltanski and Anish Kapoor, which began five years ago and happen annually.

Photo: Benoit Tessier/Reuters

The 13,500 square metre Nave of the Grand Palais, which has a 45 metre glass vault, is a daunting prospect for any artist. Buren has filled the space with a canopy of coloured panels which float above head height, creating a kaleidoscope effect. This is supplemented by a series of mirrors which span part of the floor under the central dome.

Photo: Francois Mori / AP

It costs 5 Euros to get in but it looks like it would be worth it just to see inside the Grand Palais. If you pay 9, you even get a 'cultural educator' thrown in for that (whatever one of those is).

Photo: Francois Mori/AP

To read Adrian Searle's full Guardian article, visit: 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/may/09/daniel-buren-excentriques-grand-palais?intcmp=239

Jeremy Deller's bouncy castle stonehenge opens in Glasgow

When was the last time public art was this fun? Jeremy Deller (b.1966) has unveiled his first public work in Scotland, Sacrilege, an inflatable model of Stonehenge. The work will be on display on Glasgow Green until Bank Holiday Monday on 7 May 2012 as part of the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Arts (known as GI). It will later be on display in London as part of the Olympics.


It took two months for Inflatable World Leisure (who built the first bouncy castle in the UK) to make the artwork, which was designed using detailed plans of the original 4,500 year old monument in Salisbury.

There's a great mini-interview with Deller on the Artforum website, where he also manages to shoehorn in a mention of Hawkwind:

'FOR SACRILEGE, I wanted to come up with a way for the public to interact with a very large work, and I also wanted to create something specifically about Stonehenge, and by association our ancestors. I had been thinking about how to do this for a long time and decided it would be best to create an inflatable replica of the prehistoric site. Visitors will be invited to jump and play inside of it.

Stonehenge is actually very big, but it’s hard to tell since it’s been roped off since 1977. You usually can’t get very close to it. I see that restriction as an opportunity. Glasgow Green is also very large. So making this plastic replica at life size—at one hundred and forty feet wide—in public space will give visitors an idea of how big Stonehenge really is. But the point is also for it to be a pleasant experience. The piece has an inflatable floor; otherwise you wouldn’t be able to bounce on it. I’m not going to be bouncing around in it all the time, though.

There are a lot of replicas of Stonehenge around the world, so it’s not unusual to make a replica of it. There’s a very good one in China, actually—at least the picture of it online looks amazing. What I’m doing is nothing new, except the inflatable part maybe. Anyway, Stonehenge is just one of those things that belongs to the world.

We’re still negotiating where it will be located during the Olympics, but for now the plan is for the work to go on a tour of the boroughs of London and around the UK. I’ve always thought that a good deal of public or community art is pompous and has too many lofty aims. I just wanted to make something that could be enjoyed and also be a bit silly. I think we elevate artists too much, to the point where they believe their own hype and think they are truly special and important. In the UK we especially suffer from this.

Sacrilege is playful and cheeky. The title is a way is to ward off any criticism—some will think that it is just that, a sacrilege, so why not call it that? One intended outcome is laughter, perhaps a few tears, and certainly enjoyment, though not necessarily in that order. For me at least it is also a nod to what I would call the “freak out” tendency in UK culture: Hawkwind, Bruce Lacey, and Ken Russell being its best exponents.'


My only slight reservation is that it seems rather random that the artwork is in Glasgow - what does Stonehenge, an English monument, have to do with Glasgow? I wondered whether maybe it just happened to be ready before the Olympics and the artist thought they'd give it a test run in Glasgow - not that there is anything wrong with that. Hope no dastardly kids with sharps get on it.....


There's a great video here: 

Laura Ellen Bacon commission under way at Blackwell in Windermere

Willow artwork by Laura Ellen Bacon under construction at Blackwell, March 2012

Contemporary maker Laura Ellen Bacon is part of the way through installing her spectacular temporary art commission on the facade of Blackwell, the Arts and Crafts House in Bowness-on Windermere. The work has been developed in direct response to Laura’s knowledge and experience of Blackwell, its landscape environment and the climate within which it exists. 

The installation, Exposed, comprises of two large-scale curvaceous structures in red willow bonded to the building, which was built in 1900, and the retaining wall of one of the garden terraces. The form of the two ‘clinging’ structures, which will span two floors of the external elevation when complete, will emphasise their fragility against the relative permanence of the house. Installation began on 12th March, and the artwork will be on display at Blackwell until 30th September 2012. 


Laura Ellen Bacon was selected as a Jerwood Contemporary Maker 2010. Her work is site-specific and ecologically sound; she creates large scale ‘morphing’ structures, most often woven in willow or other coppiced materials.

Laura has said about her work:
"My large-scale installations are almost always built on site, allowing me to form the works in a way that truly fits its location. I began making my early works upon dry stone walls and evolved to work within trees, riverbanks and hedges, allowing the chosen structure (be it organic or man-made) to become host. Over a decade into my work, my passions have returned to not only merging with dry stone walls, but to the powerful connections with architecture. My work has to fuse with a building to succeed, both aesthetically and practically. The forms I make have such a closeness with the fabric of the building, their oozing energy spills from gutters, their 'muscular' forms nuzzle up to the glass and their gripping weave locks onto the strength of the walls. Whilst the scale and impact varies from striking to subtle (sometimes only visible upon a quizzical double take), I relish the opportunity to let the building 'feed' the form, as if some part of the building is exhaling into the work."