Spitalfields Public Art programme provides an exciting array of sculptures and soundscapes in and around Spitalfields market.
Kenny Hunter: I Goat
The winning design of the Spitalfields Sculpture Prize 2010, Kenny Hunter's hand-sculpted goat stands atop a stack of packing crates to create the 3.5metre high I Goat, which was inspired by Spitalfields' rich, ongoing social history.
"Goats are associated with non-conformity and being independently-minded. That is also true of London, its people and never more so than in Spitalfields." said artist Kenny Hunter at the official unveiling on 20 January 2011.
Scottish sculptor Hunter beat seven other shortlisted designs to win the £45,000 commission. Hunter is known for his monumental sculptures and his works have been exhibited worldwide.
Red Church, Eleonora Aguiari
Eleonora's work addresses the concepts of church and temple. On first visiting Spitalfields, she was struck by the dramatic facade of Hawksmoor's church: its strong presence, its distance, silence and purity.
Her own church plays with the Hawksmoor original and, in using the colour red, she has created a contrast with its white facade, and a dialogue between the ideas of purity and passion.
Lines of Communication, Craft + Pegg
The Civil War fortifications of London are a forgotten feature of the city's urban fabric. At the time they were one of the most extensive feats of civil engineering ever attempted in the British Isles.
The eleven mile circuit of the city is recorded as a sketch in Vertue's map of 1738, a sketch of sufficient accuracy that it may be transposed onto the contemporary London map and its principle features located.
Whilst a London-wide feature, the "Lines of Communication" as they were known possessed a number of significant features in and around Spitalfields including: Star Forts, Hornworks, palisaded ditches and moats.
The construction of the Lines of Communication was a huge community endeavour, with reports of up to 100,000 citizens of all classes labouring voluntarily - and in good humour - to build the lines for their mutual protection.
Craft + Pegg use model making as a tool to understanding 'place'. To create the model the team had to critically analyse both the historic map and London's existing plan, and decisions and interpretations of scale and form had to be made in the production of new plans, the wooden positive, the rubber moulds and the finishing of the concrete model itself. The process of 'making' provides challenges which force an intimacy and familiarity that studying a plan can never bring.
The production of the model has been undertaken with a lot of hard work and advice from the following: Aito Albo, Julia Putsep, Ashley Bonham, Danny Cuervals and Mark Sowden.
In addition the work has been undertaken with the resources and infinite patience of the school of Architecture and Visual Arts at the University of East London.
www.craftpegg.com
A Pear and a Fig, Ali Grant
Ali's bronze is not just a simple reminder of the days of the market: A Pear and a Fig is a still life, the fruits of which are shown ripe and ready to eat. The fabric and the block create the composition; these fruits are not casual windfalls. Artists have depicted still-lifes since the time of the Romans, as a celebration and a reminder of the opulence that came with commerce.
