Encounters with Sculpture in the City

Introducing the project

Yesterday the film maker and sound artist Harriet Gifford and I embarked on the first of a series of walks around the site of Sculpture in the City. Last year during, the Frieze art week, Stella Loannu, the Co-Director of Sculpture in the City, invited me to the talk," Public Art, who does it serve?". This project has developed out of the discussion that followed the talk and a proposal I submitted to Stella.

A conversation  with a man who passes these sculptures every day and spends time looking at them before heading off to work. He approached us as he thought we were lost. He loves the fingermarks and the rough texture of the work. 

The focus of these walks is on the everyday. We will regularly walk the area and engage with the sculptures, their sites and the people who we come into contact with.

Yesterday's walk exceeded our expectations. Every walk will have its own dynamic,yesterday we went into the space with fresh eyes and open minds. We deliberately avoided having a plan and we certainly did not expect so much rain!




For the purpose of this blog entry I have decided to focus on "encounters".

A conversation with a young boy (aged approx 11 or 12).He described these as weird sculptures, like Pirates of the Caribbean.....

Harriet had her own encounters with her recording of sounds, The Lloyd"s building is humming with activity and the sculptures create their own conduits of sound in their spaces. I am looking forward to catching up with her development of the recorded material.

Harriet recording "Laura". Below a conversation I had with a tourist who had seen a sculpture by the same artist in Bordeaux and showed me the photo on her phone.

People love photographing the Leadenhall lifts. It reminded me of Cesar Paternosto's book, "Piedra Abstracta", who decides what is sculpture and what is artefact?

"Florian and Kevin" by Sarah Lucas, Here,we met Lawrence and his brother. Lawrence has spent ten years drawing the buildings in the area, he is autistic and his brother has been uploading his drawings on instagram,You can check these out @Lawrencetheartiste.

Looking forward to our next walk in September, please let me know if you are interested in joining us, as we will be inviting groups to walk with us creating further encounters with Sculpture in the City. 

My email address: elspethpenfold@yahoo.co.uk