01. Ai Weiwei

Roots: Palace, 2019
Cast iron
141 x 250 x 195 cm

Ai Weiwei worked with artisans and communities in Brazil to locate roots and trunks from endangered trees, typically found in Bahian rainforests. Elements of these rare roots, some of which date back over a thousand years, were painstakingly moulded, conjoined and cast to create striking compositions and bold forms. While resembling fantastical or mythical creatures, the materials employed – cast iron covered in a patina of orange rust – respond to ancient cultures and man’s first tools for tree felling and woodworking.

Made and cast by hand using the ‘lost wax’ technique, this work represents traditional, bygone ways of life that have been usurped by industrialisation and modernisation, illustrating how progress can come at the expense of cultural and societal well-being.

Location: St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate Churchyard, London EC2M 3TL

02. Julian Opie

Charles. Jiwon. Nethaneel. Elena. 2024
Concrete
264.4 x 194.8 x 80 cm each

'At a formal dinner in China I found myself looking at the amazing array of faces around the table and, on a whim asked them all to pose against the back wall of the dining room, including the waitress.

I found myself using a very reduced language to capture both the sameness and individuality of each face. I imposed a strict vertical symmetry (except for the hair) and transferred a set of around 20 marks from one face to the next making slight changes to match each sitter. The result seems to echo traditional portraiture, silhouette or cartoon likenesses and more brutal face recognition technology, emojis and commercial logos. In an attempt to distil these references, I chose to cast the portraits as if they were something like a public monument, a motorway crash barrier and maybe even a tomb stone.'

Julian Opie, 2024

Location: 100 Bishopsgate, London EC2M 1GT

03. Oliver Bragg

In Loving Memory, 2020
Seven etched brass plaques
100 x 50 cm

Please note the bench plaque at Bury Court is temporarily removed.

This project focuses on the everyman, the natural environment and memories to place and memory itself. A series of engraved brass bench plaques have been installed to existing benches around the City of London. The plaques have been created to mimic the plaques that often adorn benches to memorialise or pay homage to a specific person. These, however, are fabricated: in loving memory of a ‘made up’ person or place or abstract idea.

Some of them are optimistic for a better future others long for a forgotten past. Some are more fantastical, abstract and others are more direct and perturbing or prescient. Many rely on humour as a way of communicating the idea.

Following inclusion in the 10th Edition of Sculpture in the City, the artwork now resides permanently in the City of London.

Locations

04a. Undershaft, EC3A 8AH (next to St Helen’s Church)
04b. Fen Court Garden, EC3M 5DL
04c. Plaza outside Fenchurch Street Station, EC3M 4AJ
04d. Aldgate Square, EC3N 1AF
04e. Mitre Square, EC3A 5DH

04. Hannah Starkey

Hannah Starkey, Assent/Ascent (2026)
Photomontage
250.3 x 404.6 cm and 172.6 x 404.6 cm

Evoking the sensation of flying through the dense urban space, Starkey’s photographic work creates a dynamic narrative that unfolds as viewers ascend and descend the escalators, mirroring the rhythm of the City itself.

Designed to be reflective of a city that never stops, the work embodies its restless energy. The aerial perspective is inspired by the viewpoint of an angel in flight.

The artist explores the relationship between architecture and perception, offering bold contrast with the surrounding monochrome buildings.

Juxtaposition of image and motion invites multiple interpretations—reflecting the disorientating nature of an ever-changing cityscape as new buildings go up and old buildings come down, to create a fluid visual language.

Courtesy of Maureen Paley, London.

Location: The Leadenhall Building, London EC3V 4AB

05. Daniel Silver

Untitled, 2014
Carrara marble, concrete
222 x 80 x 65 cm

Note: this work is temporarily off display. We apologise for any inconvenience.

Untitled 2014 is from Daniel Silver’s monumental Rock Formations series. It is a semi-figurative interpretation of the human form, made simply from two roughly hewn pieces of marble which references the work of Brancusi.

The art of ancient Greece is particularly important in Silver’s practice and these works have evolved from the study of statues and busts of the ancient world. Such objects possess an intense clarity of purpose, a purpose largely lost to us but one which would have been instantly familiar to their contemporary audiences. Silver sees them now as the products of making and re-making; by the original artist, by the weathering of time and by their re-presentation as pieces of history. Silver’s sculptures call us to examine our own connection to the images of heroes, warriors and myths, and makes them recognizable once more.

Location: 40 Leadenhall, EC3A 3DH (Leadenhall Street)

06. Maya Rose Edwards

Kissing Gate, 2023
Timber, iron fixings, public footpath sign
150cm x 150cm x variable

Kissing gates are iconic pieces of spatial punctuation throughout rural landscapes. Couples who pass through these gates traditionally exchange a kiss to mark their journey and that of those who came before them. The design of the kissing gate is unique as the mechanism itself is an intermediate space between entrance and exit. A hinged gate where the door never closes, enabling free thoroughfare for some and causing restriction for others.

Kissing Gate is an interactive installation to queer urban pedestrian experiences and invite romantic interactions between strangers. Never fully open or fully closed, Kissing Gate is an encounter with no right of way - a hyphen, not a period.

Previously exhibited between gallery spaces at the Royal Scottish Academy, New Contemporaries, Edinburgh 2023.

Aldgate Square, EC3N 1AF (Next to St Botolph without Aldgate Church)

07. Samuel Ross

CAUCUS, 2023
Powder-coated stainless steel
92 x 360 x 116 cm

To project and endow the spirit, through revelation. To live through a plethora of human allegories bridging space, time and location. A matter beyond formality.

The nature of service is to determine and solicit the needs of the populous. A viewer transitions from the onlooker to the protagonist. Intimate engagements with functional sculptures.

Sitting, standing, leaning, lurching. Within public forums, the private, and most sacred of dwellings. Each contact with the material is a compounding of the senses.

Imbuing the senses.
Be it through temperature, colour or surface. A sense of what we are, and what we are not.
An affirmation of our connection to material, to location. To the inanimate and intangible qualities of the self and caucus.

Location: Mitre Square, EC3A 5DH

08. Andrew Sabin

Looping Loop, 2025
The material of the sculpture is of Sabin’s own invention. It is tough, it holds colour, it can take a range of textures – from super smooth to very deeply undercut surfaces – and the stone itself can be anything from marble to volcanic glass, each giving different outcomes and moods.
410cm high by 180 x 180 cm

In the world of sculpture, by no means have all the methodologies been discovered. New techniques offer new possibilities in textures, forms and casting materials. Looping Loop was made in an evolving mould made entirely of pastry margarine. The sculpture’s material is stone aggregate, put into the mould dry and then bonded with a liquid plastic (bonded stone). The form and texture was modelled backwards, so the surface of the mould looked like a field of mushrooms; the holes in the sculpture were, before casting, the margarine stalks of the fungi pointing inwards in the mould. Looping Loop is a line in space along which soft, margarine, events have taken place leaving their marks in form and texture.

Location: 70 St Mary Axe, London EC3A 8BE

09. Elisa Artesero

The Garden of Floating Words, 2017
Clear acrylic and blue neon glass
50 x 50 cm base x 200 cm

The Garden of Floating Words is a neon poem that appears to be floating in the darkness from within the foliage of the garden planter. During the daytime, the words are revealed to be on tall rectangular clear acrylic stands, their structure echoing the tall glass buildings surrounding the garden space, but at night the words alone become the main feature. Using neon, a light source traditionally associated with the city, Artesero creates something ephemeral to make a space for quiet contemplation within the busy complex.

The work was first commissioned by Canary Wharf Group for the Winter Lights Festival 2017. Following inclusion in the 9th Edition of Sculpture in the City (2019–2020), the artwork was pruchased and remains on permanent display.

Location: 70 St Mary Axe, London EC3A 8BE