This September, in collaboration with Greenwich Peninsula, the London Design Festival has commissioned A bullet from a shooting star, a Festival Landmark Project and outdoor installation at Greenwich Peninsula by British sculptor Alex Chinneck, taking the unconventional form of an inverted electricity pylon.
The 35-metre high structure has been designed to be seen from a distance, and can be viewed from North Greenwich Station, the Emirates Airline cable car, the Thames Clipper service, Canary Wharf and all planes that fly to and from City Airport. Illuminated at night, the work acts as a literal beacon and will project a maze of latticed shadows.
A bullet from a shooting star contains a combined length of 1186m of steel weighing 15 tons. There are 450 pieces of steel with 900 engineered connection points. The foundations will include 19m deep piles within 78m³ of concrete.
Referencing the industrial history of the site which once included the largest oil and gas works in Europe and a steelworks, Alex Chinneck will create a lattice of steel, that resembles an upside down pylon, leaning at a precarious angle as though shot into the earth. The construction and materials will reflect the same visual and material language of multiple structures across the Peninsula, particularly the redundant gas tower located on site while also evoking the idea of power generation and supply.
To complement the external installation, NOW Gallery will house Straight jacket star jumps, a 20-metre-long curled up pylon opening 19 September. The work creates a physical and material tension between the object and the glass space in which it stands. Like a ship in a glass bottle, the wound-up 20-metre-long pylon defies logic to fit within the 7-metre-high space, coiling under apparent tension to fit within the room.
Both installations defy logic through structural deception by presenting the same object in a very different way: A bullet from a shooting star is outstretched and confident whereas Straight jacket star jumps is reserved, recoiled and contained.
Chinneck’s indoor and outdoor works have been conceived to share a dialogue that links the East and the West of the Peninsula. Physically separated yet sculpturally connected they will encourage visitors to explore both areas of the expansive and extraordinary district and unravel its rich history.
The exhibition is free to view and runs from 19 September 2015 – 10 January 2016 at the NOW Gallery, Greenwich Peninsula.
