LONDON.- Sculpture in the City, the annual exhibition of contemporary art placed among the striking architecture of the City of London, launched its 11th edition. New works on show from eleven contemporary artists have joined by six sculptures that remain in situ from the 10th edition alongside two permanent acquisitions.

This free, outdoor public art exhibition showcases works by established and emerging artists, with each piece selected for its ability to create a relationship and dialogue with the complex urban environment of the Square Mile. Comprised of different forms, mediums and sizes, the 11th edition of Sculpture in the City provides an opportunity to experience and engage with world-class contemporary public art.

Carved from Carrara marble, Miss, 2021, by Emma Louise Moore becomes translucent when penetrated by the sun, making the passing of time tangible. Sited on the corner of 99 Bishopsgate and Wormwood Street, the surroundings create passing shadows and moments of inactivity, so that the illumination of the work is ephemeral, with its activation by the sun a momentary phenomenon. Victor Seaward’s Nests, 2022, takes the form of imagined phantasmagorical fruits that function simultaneously as aesthetic sculptures and functional bird nests. Made from enamel and epoxy resin on 3D printed PETG, the sculptures hang on trees outside 99 Bishopsgate as well as Aldgate Square, next to The Aldgate School, and in accordance with RSPB guidelines, offer a safe and comfortable environment for birds nesting

Within the churchyard of St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate, is Alice Channer’s work Burial, 2016. Initially shown as part of the 10th edition, the work highlights the variations of time, with two ‘stretched’ Corten Streel rocks cast from concrete pieces collected from demolition sites across London. A short walk away at 100 Bishopsgate, Mike Ballard’s Rough Neck Business, 2019, also remains on show from the 10th edition. Symbolising the fluidity and regeneration of the city, two links of a chain, fashioned from hoardings sourced from sites across London, this artwork represent the past and future respectively.




Ugo Rondinone’s summer moon, 2011, belongs to a long-running sculpture series of trees. Located on Undershaft, next to St Helen’s Church, the stark white form of this ancient olive tree in painted aluminium is both a meticulous recreation of a real tree and an avowedly artificial object. In its solitary, displaced and denuded appearance, the work speaks dually of life and death, the unbridgeable gulf between nature and artifice. As Ugo Rondinone explained in 2006, “Through a cast olive tree you can not only experience the lapse of real time, that is lived time, frozen in its given form, but through this transformation also a different calibrated temporality. Time can be experienced as a lived abstraction, where the shape is formed by the accumulation of time and wind force.” Close by, at 22 Bishopsgate, Crosby Square, is Sarah Lucas’s large-scale sculpture, Sandwich, 2011-2020. Its horizontal configuration simultaneously satirises and celebrates the commonplace foodstuff as a proletariat symbol. While the austerity of the work in concrete elevates and inverts the object’s ordinariness with irreverent humour.

Eva Rothschild’s work, Cosmos, 2018, is composed of three 3.5m high slatted structures leaning into and supporting each other. Unveiled as part of the 10th series, and sited on Undershaft, between Aviva and The Leadenhall Building, this work elicits a physical and aesthetic response, necessitating the viewer to walk around the work and the architectural surroundings. Oliver Bragg’s work In Loving Memory, 2020, also appeared in the 10th series, mimicking memorial plaques that pay homage to persons, places or abstract ideas. Ten engraved bench plaques range from the optimistic to the revelatory, often relying on humour. Featured in seven locations, including Undershaft, next to St Helen’s Church; Jubilee Gardens and Fen Court Garden, they have recently been acquired by Sculpture in the City.

Emma Smith’s neon text work, We 2019, highlights the precarious nature of relationships and the constant flux between states of togetherness and isolation. Mounted on The Leadenhall Building, the work initially reads WE ARE ALL ONE. However, the first L in the word ALL flickers as if faulty, resulting in a change between the statements WE ARE ALL ONE and WE ARE ALONE, offering a paradox between a group and shared experience. Inspired by her archive, Claudia Wieser has created Generations (Part 2), 2022, a site-specific artwork on the underside of the escalators leading up to Leadenhall Building. The vinyl collage weaves various narratives together from the ancient past to the present day, inviting the viewer to consider their place in time at the centre of a continually evolving and relentless world.

At Leadenhall Market, Shezad Dawood presents Invasion, 2019, a neon sculpture in the form of an invading monster emerging from the arcade into the public realm. Reminiscent of a character in digital video games from childhood, the work explores video games as Cold War propaganda. Located nearby at the Beehive Passage, Guillaume Vandame’s symbols, 2019-2021, remains in situ from 2021, consisting of 30 unique flags from the LGBTQ+ community, including the original Pride Flag designed by Gilbert Baker in San Francisco in 1978 to its newest iteration by Daniel Quasar in 2018, and celebrating the diversity of gender, sexuality and desire today. On Cullum Street, Bram Ellens’ Orphans (2018-2020), also included in the 10th edition, has given a new lease of life to old paintings collected from those who have passed away. The original shapes have a spirituality and timelessness that evoke a feeling of resignation and inner silence.

Outside Fenchurch Street Station, visitors will be able to see Jun T. Lai’s Bloom Paradise, 2019, that was part of the 10th edition. Symbolising hope and positivity, the lotus flower has inspired the three-dimensional sculptures, the ‘Flower of Hope’, the ‘Flower of the Sky’ and the ‘Flower of Life’.

Heading over to Cunard Place, is Jesse Pollock’s life-sized traditional English grain store steel sculpture, The Granary, 2021, finished in pearlescent candy orange. Symbolising a desire to return to an idyllic past, the beaten surface reflects the brutal reality of material hardship, discord, class division and racism, highlighting what we have lost or stand to lose from crises affecting rural life today. Pedro Pires’s sculpture Habitat, 2021, encourages the viewer to look at the work within an ecological, environmental and sustainable context, offering a commentary on how the decline of this ecological balance is ongoing and the threat it poses to our future on the planet.

Winner of the inaugural Aldgate Square Commission supporting emerging artists in the UK, is Earthing, 2022, by Jocelyn McGregor. Located in Aldgate Square, next to St Botolph without Aldgate Church, this site-specific tactile public sculpture, acts like a magnifying glass to explore interconnections between the synthetic and organic worlds in urban spaces, with the human body as the conduit between the two. The title references activities that aim to reconnect the viewer with the earth.

Bosco Sodi was inspired to cast the damaged stalagmite sawdust-mix forms, Untitled, 2013, after saltwater damaged the majority of the contents in his pier-based studio after Hurricane Sandy hit New York in 2012. These organic bronze sculptures, on view at 70 St Mary Axe, represent creation and destruction, both of time and in nature, as well as providing a symbol of hope in response to the consequences of climate change. Close by on the pedestrianised space is Elisa Artesero’s The Garden of Floating Words, 2017, acquired by Nuveen Real Estate following the 2019 edition. Within a garden space, a vertical neon poem features on tall acrylic stands, that appears to float during darkness, providing visual interest within the built environment.

Stella Ioannou, Artistic Director of Sculpture in the City, says, “As we emerged from the challenges of the last two years with renewed energy, it is with a message of optimism that we present this 11th edition of Sculpture in the City. As ever, it wouldn't have been possible without the vision and support of the City of London and project partners, and of our amazing artists, who have contributed to make this 11th edition an incredible journey through the best of what contemporary sculpture has to offer. As we welcome everyone back to the City, we hope this year's sculpture park will engage and stimulate the public, including visitors, tenants, office workers and residents alike. We might even have some new avian residents this year.”