Saturday 23 July 2022
6pm until Late
For the fourth consecutive year, Sculpture in the City was an associate programme partner for the Whitechapel Gallery's free festival, celebrating the East End's vibrant arts scene with installations, moving image works and performances.
For one night only, select artists from Sculpture in the City 11th Edition activated the exhibition and brought to life at night the Square Mile with temporary activations, including dance and live art performances, workshops, participatory activities and sound installations. Guided tours accompanied the free evening of events.
Programme
Pedro Pires
Artwork: Habitat, 2021
Event Title and Type: Oasis - sound installation created by Pedro Pires, with special thanks to Francisco Furtado
Location: Mitre Square, London EC3A 5DH
6 to 11pm (durational track on a 15 minute loop)
Pedro Pires’s sound installation filled Mitre Square with soundscapes that relate to the concepts of Human and Nature. His aim was to create a space of abstraction away from city life and to encourage the public to react intuitively. Sound is a sensorial tool that creates reactions in people with the first impact always relating to feelings and intuition. With Oasis, Pires has used the power of recorded natural sounds to question the relation between us humans and the planet. Among the sounds played on a loop were a heartbeat, a river flowing, breathing as well as an earthquake and thunderstorm.
Bram Ellens
Artwork: Orphans, 2018–2020
Event Title and Type: The Orphans Tape, 2021 – durational track on a 15 minute loop
Event location: Cullum Street, London EC3M 7JJ
6 to 11pm
Produced by Bram Ellens and Harmen Sipkema (Polycorp Media)
The artist activated his sculpture with an atmospheric sound installation produced with LPs, CDs and cassettes from the 1980s, which had been discarded or donated to thrift stores. It brought to life his sculptures, which are themselves made from 'orphaned' paintings the artist found at thrift stores, after the original owner was deceased and had been discarded by their heirs. The soundtrack was inverted on a 10-minute loop, having been live mixed for an eight-hour duration, analogue style. The result was an intimate and contemplative atmosphere with visitors hearing whispers from afar.
Emma Louise Moore
Artwork: Miss, 2021
Event Title and Type: Permanence, 2022
Location: Corner of Bishopsgate and Wormwood Street, London EC2M 3XD
6pm and 8pm start (duration: 60 minutes each)
The object-based performance reflected the artist's recent return to traditional methods of stone carving, with sudden loud noises and the gradual cracking of the marble unfolding throughout the two-hour-long durational piece. Moore used this performance to deconstruct her relationship with material and process: creating a ritual-like exploration of materiality, that interacts with the sound space of the city, bouncing off the surrounding and contrasting high-rise buildings.
Jocelyn McGregor
Artwork: Earthing, 2022
Event Title and Type: The Picnic - horror folk tale
Location: Aldgate Square, London EC3N 1AF
6.30pm, 7.30pm, 8.30pm, 9.30pm, 10.30pm (duration: 15 minutes)
Written by Jocelyn McGregor, performed by Elizabeth Connick
The artist drew audiences into a horror folk tale, daring them to explore the artwork and themselves deeper. Part of a series of fictional diary entries that accompany the artist's sculptural practice, a live performance brought to life a diary extract charting a solo hiking trip that took a disturbing turn. Inspired by Gothic Literature and Horror & Supernatural Radio plays.
Emma Smith
Artwork: WE, 2019
Event Title and Type: We - performance by Emma Smith
Location: The Leadenhall Building, London EC3V 4AB
6 to 8.30pm (duration: 5 minute poetry reading per visitor)
Special readings at 6.15pm and 7.15pm
Inspired by Jean-Luc Nancy’s proposal that we come into being through relationship, Smith’s activation programme invited audiences to reflect on what it means to be a ‘we’. Collectively contributed poems emerged throughout the night and were read aloud by the artist.
Elisa Artesero
Artwork: The Garden of Floating Words, 2017
Event Title and Type: Untitled - dance activation
Location: 70 St Mary Axe, London EC3A 8BE
6.30pm, 7.30pm, 8.30pm, 9.30pm start (duration: 15 minutes each)
Produced by Elisa Artesero in collaboration with Meraki Collective
The artist invited contemporary dancers to explore the themes of time, presence, absence and transience, which her neon word-sculptures examine (on permanent display) in the heart of the City of London.
Guided Tours
Expert-led tours of Sculpture in the City 11th Edition accompanied the overall programme.
When Art Meets Architecture
Guided Tour with David Rosenberg, Velorose
Duration: 6:00-8:00pm
David Rosenberg, architect and gallerist, led an exciting tour of Sculpture in the City 11th Edition with a focus on its architectural context.
Art and the City
Guided Tour with Anne-Marie Craven, City of London Blue Badge Guide
Duration: 6:00-8:00pm
Anne-Marie Craven, an official City of London tour guide, led audiences through the exhibition with a focus on the historical context of the Square Mile.
PRODUCED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
SUPPORTED BY
