Write up courtesy of Cécile Brisac
Artworks taking root within architectural and urban surroundings inspire us and challenge our thinking. Any doubts you may have had about their importance in our daily lives would have been lifted during last week's talk on "Art and Architecture in the City". Their production and their influence make for fascinating stories, from the structural prowess needed to hold up a sculpture, to public art events uplifting children's lives as they become candid art critics.
Successfully combining art and architecture takes a certain level of risk, and it’s well worth it. We heard different approaches through inspiring presentations interspersed with a lively and thoughtful discussion, wonderfully chaired by Michael Cassidy, in a packed lecture theatre at Temple Bar.
Art and architecture come together in two different ways: by juxtaposition or being interwoven. A “sculpture at the entrance” type of juxtaposition, where the two form a dialogue and remain independent from each other, is exactly what happens at 23 Savile Row. Eric Parry presented the prominent sculpture by American sculptor Joel Shapiro which announces the building’s entrance, hovering above it as an abstract giant bird, as tall as two storeys high.
On the other hand the Salisbury Square development integrates an entire façade of glass panels with colourful artwork by Shirazeh Houshiary, celebrating nature, to enliven what would have been the very hermetic street level frontage of the new Law courts - security taking over from transparency, for obvious reasons.
To successfully embed an artwork into architecture, Eric Parry considers that architects cannot view their building to be the work of art. It is perhaps more nuanced.
It takes confidence as well as boldness from everyone involved: the client, the artist and the architect, who need to work as a team towards one goal. And neither the architect nor the artist can be too precious either. When an artist's work is so intertwined with the architect’s design, the boundary is blurred between the two: the artist’s work does not exist without the architecture, and the architect's work is not complete without the artwork.
As one of the largest employers in the City, Deutsche Bank are giving their staff visual wonders and food for thought, using walls of their new headquarters building at 21 Moorfields as a gallery displaying works from their collection. These are almost exclusively paper or photography, for practical reasons, they can be framed and protected. People lean on them. "The collection is there for people who work at the bank to engage in debates", explains Mary Findlay, International Art Curator at the bank. Themes include post-colonialism, identity, climate crisis. The collection is now so vast it is stored in a separate facility outside London. But as part of the new building, the bank has also commissioned pieces from three contemporary artists on the themes of inclusion, Simeon Barclay, Claire Hopper and Rene Matić, for large pieces works integrated on some of the plain walls.
"Art is a powerful tool, used to bridge cultural divides", confirms Stella Ioannou of Lacuna, who presented the impressive 14-year-old Sculpture in the City programme which has supported some 137 artists, showing contemporary art in relation to contemporary architecture.
Around themes such as Architecture as canvas, Street encounters, Looking up, Superscale, Civic engagement and Emerging artists are grafted a series of activations: dance workshops,
tours, cocktail & create sessions, and perhaps the most impactful: "Little Art Critics ". Children are the art critics; you can trust them for speaking the truth. Stella told us the most moving story about one boy who gets bullied at school. His mother told her that whenever that happens, he watches the video of him speaking on the programme Little Art Critic, and that makes him feel better about himself.
There are poetic works like the Kissing Gate by Maya Rose Edwards, to stop people in their steps; gigantic ones like The Good, The Bad, The Ugly by Jake and Dinos Chapman, that look minute in front of the Gherkin; intriguing ones like the translucent cube Pacific Red by Larry Bell.
Public art cannot be precious: people will touch it, climb it, hug it, kick it, even lick it. Stella is certain some children must have licked the Pacific Red cube, it looks too much like a lollipop.
All these works are temporary. This means you can take additional risks you wouldn't be able to take if they were permanent. Risk in technique, such as Bridging Home by Do-Ho Suh's, a house on a bridge, hanging over a TfL route and 4 lanes of traffic, atop a bridge which acts as a fire escape. And risk in content. When asked “what constitutes a successful art piece”, Stella becomes very thoughtful, takes a while to answer. Eventually, she tells the anecdote of how Martin Creed’s Work No. 2814, made of 48 plastic bags “blossoming” in a tree, became the subject of a furore. “How could you call this art ?” she was asked by one furious viewer who hated it, but eventually came to understand it and love it, walking past it for 10 months.
We heard a lot from the curators and the architects during this talk. Next time, it would be wonderful to hear it all from the artists.
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