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.