Sculpture At: Lucy Tomlins, Pylon and Pier

Bermondsey Square, London
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Event has ended
This event ended on Sunday 24th of September 2017
Admission
Free
Location

Bermondsey Square, London

Nearest Tube/Rail Stations
Borough 0.62 miles

The fourth public sculpture commission for ‘SCULPTURE AT Bermondsey Square’ and the launch of the second phase of the project is a new commission by British artist Lucy Tomlins.

With ‘Pylon and Pier’, Tomlins takes the public square as the work’s starting point. Traditionally this is where statues of distinguished people are sited, usually placed there to reinforce notions of power or national prestige. Tomlins’ sculpture reverses this, however, presenting a statue of the Titan Atlas – not as in Greek mythology holding up the sky for eternity, but fallen from its plinth and, grasping the globe, lain on its side. The viewer’s gaze, which would normally be directed upwards in awe, now stares across on the felled colossus drained, the loss of his mythological strength underscored by the diminutive size of his body – he is only 1.4 metres in height, thus allowing the beholder a more intimate interaction with the work.

Tomlins’ use of Atlas is a direct visual reference to another inspiration for the work, American poet Wallace Stevens’ poem, ‘The Public Square’ (1931), which describes the demolition of a modernist building as a metaphor for systemic collapse. After the dust settles, all that remains, Wallace avers, is, ‘The bijou of Atlas, the moon/Was last with its porcelain leer.’

Tags: Exhibition

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