Art
During the development of Cabot Circus 20 artists and designers, working with a diversity of artistic disciplines were commissioned to contribute to the public realm and architectural landscape of the centre. The result is as innovative and awe-inspiring as Cabot Circus itself. Adding a dose of culture into a mix already brimming with style and entertainment, the art trail flows through Cabot Circus and its confines. But don't go anticipating watercolours and oil paintings hanging on walls: each installation promises to deliver a sense of wonderment and discovery that will surprise and intrigue both adults and children in equal measure.
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Artist Commissions
Nayan Kulkarni
The precinct roof at Cabot Circus has been created by artist Nayan Kulkarni in partnership wtih the main scheme architects Chapman Taylor and the project engineers. The free-form shell-shaped glass roof floats between the buildings above the Central Square and streets of Cabot Circus. At 5,800 square metres and composed of some 2,800 panes of glass, the roof is the first of its kind in the UK, creating a dynamic, light, airy and open environment, while providing protection from the elements.
Timorous Beasties
Wallpaper and textile design studio Timorous Beasties have introduced a sandblasted "wallpaper" on one of the main building elevations on Bond Street - the principal road that wraps around Cabot Circus. The artwork is a repeat design with a floral, domestic theme. The concept behind the work is to offer street users an unexpected and intriguing experience of the building facade, bringing a sense of the domestic to a busy urban environment.
Susanna Heron
"This work is both charged and completed by the quality of marine light particular to Bristol. The drawings for the relief were made in response to the stone, scale and geometry of the architecture to bring a sense of landscape and an awareness of reflected light and cast shadows; a realisation of the moment."
Artist Susanna Heron in collaboration wtih Stanton Williams Architects. Bas relief in glass and bronze integral to the Portland Roche fossil-stone facade on Bond Street South. Three storey glass window, etched and sandblasted, 14.4 x 13.4 metres located above the bronze frieze. Bronze panels, cast and milled, interspersed wtih brass cassettes, 7x35 metres at ground level.
Ackroyd & Harvey
Ackroyd & Harvey's 20 metre high sculpture has been designed to have low environmental impact and harness the natural energy of Bristol's prevailing winds. The artwork's lighting is powered by solar and wind energy and is clad with a layer of thin dark grey slates. The slate is waste material from the roofing industry. The strata-like tower supports a glazed solar canopy, from which a four-metre high vertical axis wind turbine rises.
Vong Phaophanit and Claire Oboussier
Vong Phaophanit and Claire Oboussier have created a highly visual permanent installation. "All the world is two" takes the form of twin neon "figures" suspended in the Cabot Circus car park's central void. Each figure is composed of hand-moulded strands of clear red neon, encased in acrylic neon. The car park's levels provide a series of viewing points, each wtih a different composition. It's only at the avenue below that the work as a whole is revealed.
Esther Rolinson
Esther Rolinson's work is located in River Street and was inspired by the River Frome, which runs directly beneath the site. The work seeks to echo the river's course in the form of 13 elegant wedge-shaped light-boxes embedded into grass. These intersect at intervals to form a gently glowing "spine" of low-level lighting undulating across the site. Composed of glass covered steel and fluorescent lamps, the light sculptures present an unusual vista of the river line.
Wolfgang Buttress
22 slender tree-like structures are "planted" in clusters in the Podium. Wolfgang's "saplings" form a sculptural glade in the city, creating a sense of calm and tranquility in a busy urban environment. Writing, inspired by the artist's own personal poetry and the words of Massive Attack and Portishead, has been carved into the sculpture with themes of transition, loss, love and hope. It harks back to the tradition of inscribing pledges of love into the bark of a tree.
Neville Gabie (1)
"A Weight of Stone Carried From China For You" on Penn Street, reflects the global nature of materials, and celebrates those involved in the creation of this part of Bristol. Gabie tracked the movement of a single granite kerbstone from a quarry in China's Fujian Province and its journey by truck , train and ferry, to its final installation in Penn Street. The kerbstone is a reminder that within this very British city, there's a small part of China.
Neville Gabie (2)
"R310 RCF Ford Mondeo" is also concerned wtih construction materials. It follows the journey of a Ford Mondeo, from being a car to becoming a reinforcing bar in the Cabot Circus car park. The car, purchased on E-Bay was turned into 680kgs of steel in a scrap yard, then melted down and made into a 32mm re-bar. A cast number was given to the steel scrap so it could be tracked to a column in the car park's third level where the registration number "R310 RCF" is inscribed to mark its place.
Dryden Goodwin
Dryden Goodwin's "12 portraits" responds to the histories and cultures of the vast number of individuals - local and from all around the world - who came to work on the development of Cabot Circus. Goodwin's work is a detailed record of some of the individuals who worked on the project, as a tribute to the contribution of the thousands who did. Positioned in a single horizontal line wtih no particular job hierarchy, the democracy of shared endeavour is emphasised.
For more information, please contact Sam Wilkinson of InSite arts at info@insitearts.com