Tag Archives: public art

Unknown's avatar

Thinking about architecture

by

Over the past few weeks I’ve been thinking about buildings, thanks to a programme I heard discussing the idea that architecture has lost its soul.

The issue made me take a closer look at this sculpture near St Mary’s Axe in the City in London. From a distance it looks like a cartoon reproduction of an old building, planted deliberately amongst the new skyscrapers in the area.

The sight of this coloured version, so different yet so familiar, balancing awkwardly on its pedestals, has cheered me up whenever I’ve seen it. I suppose I might be responding to its soul, and that, according to the plaque beside it, is what the artist wants us to do. The title of the piece is The Granary and its creator, Jesse Pollock, is from Kent, where old granary stores can still be found. With this version Pollock is asking us to recognise that although it looks rosy, its battered profile is to give an idea of how tough its life is, facing one crisis after the next.

“… The Granary speaks as much to a need to overcome these crises as it does to the vexed rhetoric that underpins established visions of the nation, its heritage and our place within it.”

Reading these words has added another layer to my looking. From now on I shall think of it as the battered red heart powering the steely-faced, glassy-eyed buildings that surround it, yet do not notice it.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

Unknown's avatar

Hot enough in London today

by

The sun was shining, the breeze was cool, and the rain dabbed here and there, but nothing too serious – the perfect day to stroll along the South Bank and then over Millennium Bridge to St Paul’s.

We looked in on the beautiful craft shops on the first floor of the Oxo Tower, and then wandered on past Tate Modern, and the schools out for end of term trips, their uniforms and chat filling the grass beneath the trees. Buskers took up the edges before the airy bridge over the river.

The Morph, dressed ‘in London’ above, was outside the Tourist Information Centre, one of a whole tribe, each dressed differently, who we came across dotted around the City. Their pedestals, and each has one, includes information on Whizz Kids, a charity for young wheelchair users. I’ve just looked them up and I see the Morph tribe are all part of Morph’s Epic Art Adventure.

After lunch near St Paul’s, loving the indoor cool, we only had time for a quick walk around the Smithfield area, looking in on the church of St Bartholomew the Great, then over the Barbican, past the Ironmongers’ Hall, and on, too fast, and too hot, to catch a train from Waterloo.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023