The outdoor art installations not to miss in 2018

JEM, by Eness, Brisbane, Australia

Interdisciplinary Australian firm Eness has designed JEM, an interactive space of contemplation and calm. Placed at the heart of Flowstate, a recently revitalised creative space at Brisbane’s South Bank, the installation responds to user interaction. The 32 LED-lined arms utilise a 360-degree laser tracking system, replying to movement through pulsating, multi-coloured lighting phrases and rhythmic sounds. Plush crochet beds invite guests to relax awhile, to embed themselves within the dynamic experience and to gaze at the sky above. ‘JEM is here to unify people through a shared experience,’ states Eness. ‘We’re excited to see how people rest, dream and play in this rare space’.

Flowstate, The Arbour, Tribune Street, Brisbane, Australia; www.eness.com

Writer: Luke Halls. Photography: Tom Blachford

The Manchester Lamps, by Acrylicize, Manchester, UK

A series of five sculptural lamps are shining a light on Manchester’s city centre. Designed by Seattle and London-based studio Acrylicize and commissioned by Property Alliance Group, the larger than life creations echo various eras of innovation in design and beyond, each with a distinctive style, from art nouveau, to art deco, midcentury, Victorian and contemporary. Paying homage to the Sir Robert Peel quote, ‘What Manchester does today, the rest of the world does tomorrow’, these public sculptures honour Manchester’s industrial past while ‘optimistically looking towards the future’, explains the studio. The 1903 art nouveau Tiffany lamp (pictured right) nods to the city’s history of education, including the Chetham Library, which houses the UK’s oldest free public reference library. The sculpture’s canopy is adorned with open books alongside classical pen nibs and square academic caps.

Piccadilly Place, Manchester, UK; www.acrylicize.com

Writer: Jessica Klingelfuss

The Manchester Lamps, by Acrylicize, Manchester, UK

The 1909 banker’s desk lamp is recognisable for its green shade – a design feature that softened the bulb, making it easier to work at night. Recreated in towering sculptural form (pictured left), it represents the dedication of world-famous computer pioneer Dr Alan Turing. The glowing canopy integrates a scrambled code, inspired by the circuit board patterns and the ground breaking Enigma code. Acrylicize has also reinterpreted the iconic Anglepoise lamp, which here playfully projects a graphic pattern onto the surrounding architecture.

Piccadilly Place, Manchester, UK; www.acrylicize.com

Writer: Jessica Klingelfuss

Franchise Freedom, by Studio Drift, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Studio Drift’s Franchise Freedom, a flying sculpture of 300 luminous drones in bird swarming formation, made its debut to much acclaim at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2017. The performative artwork will be on view for three days during sunset, from 10-12 August, above the river IJ in Amsterdam, where the duo are based. Studio Drift’s Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta have been studying the flight patterns of starlings moving in a swarm for ten years. Fascinated by the movements whereby freedom and at the same time limitations of the individual birds within the swarm alternate, the Future\Pace artists developed an algorithm that can make autonomous choices. This allowed them to translate their movements them into software that was specially developed and embedded in the luminous drones. The European premiere of Franchise Freedom coincides with the duo’s retrospective, ‘Coded Nature’, at Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum, on view until 26 August.

Franchise Freedom is on view 10-12 August, from 9.30pm; The installation can be seen from locations around the river IJ, the best spots being Pllek, Amsterdam Noord or the Haparandadam in the Houthavens; www.studiodrift.com

Writer: Jessica Klingelfuss

Where the Lights in My Heart Go, by Yayoi Kusama, Boston, US

One of Yayoi Kusama’s cosmic Infinity Mirror Rooms is being shown in the Boston area for the first time. Installed outdoors at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Where the Lights in My Heart Go (2016) is a ten-by-ten-foot polished stainless steel chamber with a mirrored interior; perforations in the walls and ceiling allow natural light to penetrate the darkened room, creating a celestial experience when visitors step inside. Kusama calls the work a ‘subtle planetarium’, an intimate and enclosed space that also gives the illusion of a continuously expanding universe. Pictured, Where the Lights in My Heart Go, 2016, by Yayoi Kusama, mirror polished stainless steel with glass mirror.

Where the Lights in My Heart Go is on view 5 July – 28 October; deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, 51 Sandy Pond Road, Lincoln, MA 01773, US; www.decordova.org

Photography: Clements Photography and Design, Boston. Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore/Shanghai and Victoria Miro, London/Venice, © Yayoi Kusama

Sculpture In the City, London, UK

London’s Square Mile has been transformed into an outdoor sculpture park for the City of London’s annual public art programme. Now in its eighth year, Sculpture in The City sees works from internationally renowned artists – Sarah Lucas, Tracey Emin, Sean Scullly among them – crop up near the English capital’s architectural landmarks, such as the Gherkin and The Leadenhall Building. Pictured, The Adventurer, 2014, by Gabriel Lester, metal, wood, fluorescent light, billboard.

Sculpture In The City runs until May 2019 in London’s Square Mile

Writer: Jessica Klingelfuss. Photography: Nick Turpin

Sculpture In the City, London, UK

Sound works are being presented for the first time at Sculpture in The City: Marina Abramović’s 1972 Tree installation (pictured) confronts visitors with the sound of birdsong with an insistent, distorted repetition, enclosed within a tree at 99 Bishopsgate.

Sculpture In The City runs until May 2019 in London’s Square Mile

Writer: Jessica Klingelfuss. Photography: Ken Adlard. Image © Marina Abramović. Courtesy of Lisson Gallery

Will Ryman outdoor sculptures, Paris, France

American sculptor Will Ryman has installed seven monumental sulphur-yellow ‘heads’ (pictured), each over 3m in height, in Paris’ Parc de la Villette as part of the third edition of the 100 Percent Festival. Abstract in form, with varying apertures (or eyes), each is purposefully imperfect, recalling gongshi, ancient Chinese scholars’ rocks. Hand-sculpted in clay and then cast in resin, the Heads are titled after Samuel Beckett’s seminal 1984 play, Waiting for Godot.

Will Ryman’s sculptures are on view until 16 September; Parc de la Villette, 211 Avenue Jean Jaurès, 75019 Paris, France

Will Ryman outdoor sculptures, Paris, France

Elsewhere in the Paris park, Ryman has erected a labyrinth of primary-coloured resin slabs, inspired by the arcade game Pac-Man. This is the New York-based artist’s first large-scale presentation in Europe.

Will Ryman’s sculptures are on view until 16 September; Parc de la Villette, 211 Avenue Jean Jaurès, 75019 Paris, France

Uraeus, by Anselm Kiefer, New York, US

Anselm Kiefer touched down in New York this May with his first site-specific public sculpture in the US, presented by Gagosian and organised by Public Art Fund and Tishman Speyer. Sitting at the Fifth Avenue entrace of the Rockefeller Center’s Channel Gardens, the sculpture explores the symbolism of books. Constructed from lead (a material preferred by Kiefer), a gigantic book rests open on spread eagle’s wings, while a winding serpent coils up a 20ft stainless steel column, anchored by a base of lead-clad books. The array of classical imagery incorporated into the piece questions the development and production of fact throughout history. Juxtaposed against today’s digital age, which democratises knowledge unlike ever before, Kiefer masterfully asks viewers of Uraeus to see literature as powerful, yet also dangerous.

Uraeus is on view until 22 July 2018; Channel Gardens, New York, NY 10020, US

Writer: Luke Halls. Photography: Nicholas Knight. Courtesy of Gagosian and Public Art Fund

Wind Sculpture (SG) I , by Yinka Shonibare, New York, US

Yinka Shonibare is having a moment in the US. The British-Nigerian artist recently installed one of his signature batik-inspired Wind Sculptures at The National Museum of African American Art in Washington DC. Now, Shonibare has unveiled his first public art commission in New York – at Central Park no less. Presented by nonprofit organisation Public Art Fund, the 23ft tall fibreglass sculpture is the first in a new generation of Wind Sculptures, taking on a deeper, and more dynamically twisting form than previous iterations – the 55-year-old has described it as an attempt to ‘playfully sculpt the impossible’. Visitors will find it difficult to miss this billowing hand-painted sculpture, which uses a palette of turquoise, red, and orange – colours that recall Shonibare’s childhood on the beaches of Lagos. Shonibare has called the Dutch wax batik print that inspires his work the ‘perfect metaphor for multilayered identities’. Ultimately, isn’t that what New York is all about?

Wind Sculpture (SG) I is on view until 14 October; Doris C Freedman Plaza, access via southeast entrance, Central Park, New York, US

Writer: Jessica Klingelfuss. Courtesy of Yinka Shonibare MBE, Public Art Fund, New York and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London

Champ, by Zoe Buckman, Los Angeles, US

With International Women’s Day (8 March) just around the corner, female artists are enjoying their moment in the spotlight more than ever. Case in point: Zoe Buckman, who has just unveiled her first-ever public art installation, Champ, in front of the The Standard Hollywood hotel in Los Angeles. Presented by Art Production Fund with support from fashion label Alice + Olivia by Stacey Bendet, the kinetic 43ft tall neon artwork – depicting an abstracted uterus with fibreglass boxing gloves in place of ovaries – will slowly rotate on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Sweetzer Avenue. ‘Whether it speaks to reproductive rights or advocacy around domestic violence, or women’s health awareness, my goal is to give agency to these women whilst also transcending gender in the fight for women’s rights,’ says the London-born artist, now based in New York. ‘The use of boxing gloves as stereotypically masculine objects, and the choice to use white light for its neutral quality, will hopefully encourage us all to band together in face of current adversity.’

Champ is on view until February 2019; The Standard Hollywood, 8300 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA 90069, US

Writer: Jessica Klingelfuss. Photography: Veli-Matti Hoikka. Courtesy of Art Production Fund

‘Smog Free Tower’, by Studio Roosegaarde, Kraków, Poland

Design Awards 2018 judge Daan Roosegaarde believes that design should genuinely improve quality of life. Now, Studio Roosegaarde has garnered international acclaim with its Smog Free Tower, a 7m tall air cleanser that purifies 30,000 m3 of air per hour, on as much energy as a water boiler. The tower is currently occupying Park Jordana in Kraków, Poland, promoting an optimistic vision of a cleaner future.

Park Jordana, Aleja 3 Maja 11, 30-062 Kraków, Poland

Writer: Luke Halls

‘Smog Free Tower’, by Studio Roosegaarde, Kraków, Poland

ING Bank Śląski SA partnered with Roosegaarde Studio to bring the tower to Kraków, having adopted the Green Statement in 2017 to actively find innovative solutions to prevent air pollution. A pop-up exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Kraków joins the tower – part of Roosegaarde’s larger work ‘Landscapes of the Future’, connecting people, technology and space to improve quality of life in urban environments.

Park Jordana, Aleja 3 Maja 11, 30-062 Kraków, Poland

Writer: Luke Halls

Ice Breakers, Toronto, Canada

Downtown Toronto has received a fresh wave of public installations this winter. Spread across the city’s waterfront, winning submissions of the Ice Breakers design competition come from Canadian, Chinese and Portuguese studios, designed under the theme of constellations. Winning designs include Winter FanFare (pictured) by Thena Tak from Vancouver, as well as Root Cabin by Winnipeg’s Liz Wreford and Peter Samson of Public City Architecture.

HTO Park West, 375 Queens Quay W, Toronto, ON M5V 1A2, Canada

Writer: Luke Halls

Ice Breakers, Toronto, Canada

Another winning submission Through the Eyes of the Bear (pictured), by Tanya Goertzen of Calgary-based People Places, is constructed from completely renewable, recyclable and compostable materials. The buried bear invites user interaction, asking onlookers to consider their own relationship with nature by literally looking ‘through the bear’s eyes’. Goertzen looked to the Ursa Major constellation for inspiration, which is widely known as the ‘Great Bear’. Waterfront BIA’s Executive Director Carol Jolly sees the new installations as having ‘really brought a community together’ during the colder months, and are reason enough to head water-side this winter.

HTO Park West, 375 Queens Quay W, Toronto, ON M5V 1A2, Canada

Writer: Luke Halls

Relatum – Stage, by Lee Ufan, London UK

London’s art-filled Kensington Gardens has gained a new public sculpture outside Serpentine Galleries. Following in the footprints of works by Michael Craig-Martin, Alex Katz, and Anish Kapoor, Lee Ufan’s Relatum – Stage continues the South Korean artist’s renowned ‘Relatum’ series, ongoing in global public spaces since the 1960s. Comprising two, angled, mirrored-steel sheets and two different-sized stones, this new work aims to merge the natural and industrial in a poetic installation that reflects the peace of the Park – a haven in its city centre spot.

Serpentine Galleries, Kensington Gardens, London W2 3XA, UK; www.serpentinegalleries.org

Writer: Elly Parsons

Knots, by Alex Chinneck, Kirchheim unter Teck, Germany

‘I like to give fluidity to typically inflexible things, transcending their material nature,’ says British sculptor Alex Chinneck of his latest outlandish installation – an enormous brick column that he has seemingly ‘tied in a knot’. The installation mimics similar columns that feature prominently on and inside a 450-year-old museum in Kirchheim unter Teck, Germany. ‘This intervention took an opportunity to defy logic and distort history,’ says the artist. The work titled ‘Birth, death and a midlife crisis’, complements a new exhibition of Chinneck’s work happening concurrently inside the museum, featuring a wooden broom (also knotted) leaning comically against the wall.

‘Knots’ is on view until 8 April; Städtische Galerie Kornhaus, Max-Eyth-Strasse 19, 73230 Kirchheim unter Teck, Germany; www.kornhausgaleriekirchheim.wordpress.com

Writer: Elly Parsons

Robert Indiana, New York, US

Robert Indiana once said, ‘It’s the role of the artist – my particular role, if you will – to make words and numbers very, very special.’ It’s a role the celebrated American artist exercised when creating his seminal word-art, LOVE WALL and ONE through ZERO, which Paul Kasmin Gallery has brought to 515 West Street, New York City. Indiana’s archetypal LOVE compositions, with their bold serif lettering, is one of the most ubiquitous works of art of the 20th century. It’s return to New York marks not only 15 years representation with Paul Kasmin, but the artist’s 90th birthday.

‘Robert Indiana’ is on view until 3 March; 515 W 27th Street, New York, NY 10001, US; www.paulkasmingallery.com

Writer: Elly Parsons

Aventura Mall slide tower, by Carsten Höller, Miami, US

Miami’s answer to Anish Kapoor’s ARCELORMITTAL ORBIT in London, will get you feeling ‘somewhere between delight and madness’, says its creator Carsten Höller​. Housed at Aventura Mall, Miami’s premier shopping destination (home to a world-class contemporary art collection), the nine-storey slide is Höller’s first in America.

Aventura Mall, 19501 Biscayne Blvd, Aventura, FL 33180, US; www.aventuramall.com

Writer: Elly Parsons

Aventura Mall slide tower, by Carsten Höller, Miami, US

After climbing a titanium steel staircase, visitors will plummet 93 feet at 15 miles per hour, enjoying dizzying views of the new, three-level expansion wing of the Aventura Mall (which houses works by Louise Bourgeois, Jorge Pardo, The Haas Brothers and Daniel Arsham, among others). This permanent installation will be free to the (daredevil) public.

Aventura Mall, 19501 Biscayne Blvd, Aventura, FL 33180, US; www.aventuramall.com

Writer: Elly Parsons

Jacob’s Ladder, by Gerry Judah, Makarau, New Zealand

Gibbs Farm – a 1000-acre open-air sculpture park in Kaipara Harbour, near Auckland – features over 30 monumental sculptures from a roll-call of top international contemporary artists including Richard Serra, Anish Kapoor and Andy Goldsworthy. All works are commissioned by Alan Gibbs, a New Zealand businessman, entrepreneur and art collector who has been assembling the Gibbs Farm collection for 26 years. Now, British artist Gerry Judah has joined the cast, with Jacob’s Ladder – a sweeping, 110ft tall sculpture made out of square-sectioned steel tube.

Gibbs Farm Sculpture Park, 2421 Kaipara Coast Hwy, Makarau 0984, New Zealand; www.gibbsfarm.org.nz

Writer: Elly Parsons. Photography: David Hartley-Mitchell

Jacob’s Ladder, by Gerry Judah, Makarau, New Zealand

Jacob’s Ladder (a colloquial term referring to the connection between the earth and heaven) is made from 480 lengths of steel, stacked one on top of each other. Each layer is slightly different in length and size, so the sculpture appears to shift and rotate, producing the final gracefully curving shape – despite the components themselves all being straight steel sections. Despite its physical rigidity, the sculpture evokes both a hurricane, and smoke billowing from a fire, appearing to blow in the wind.

Gibbs Farm Sculpture Park, 2421 Kaipara Coast Hwy, Makarau 0984, New Zealand; www.gibbsfarm.org.nz

Writer: Elly Parsons. Photography: David Hartley-Mitchell