Looming large: Conrad Shawcross on his great summer of immersive installations

Conrad Shawcross, the youngest living member of the Royal Academy of Arts, has had a remarkably busy summer in London, with his large-scale immersive installations and smaller-scale exhibitions featuring prominently across the city. His work is presented in multiple gallery shows and as permanent public art fixtures, solidifying his status as a public art A-lister. This summer's intense activity includes a major installation at the Royal Academy, a supporting exhibition at the Victoria Miro gallery, and permanent public sculptures in Dulwich Park and outside the new Francis Crick Institute. The centerpiece of his summer engagements is 'The Dappled Light of the Sun,' a colossal installation featured in the Annenberg Courtyard of the Royal Academy's annual Summer Exhibition. This massive sculpture is composed of five interconnected 'clouds,' constructed from thousands of steel tetrahedrons, weighing 30 tons and spanning seven-and-a-half miles of material. Standing six meters tall, the installation invites visitors to walk beneath its structure, contemplating the interplay between order, geometry, chaos, and beauty. Shawcross explains that while the tetrahedron was considered by the Greeks to be the essence of indivisible matter, in practice, it creates an 'awkward' building block that radiates and bifurcates like tree branches, suggesting an irrational, organic complexity akin to neural pathways in the brain. Simultaneously, the Victoria Miro gallery in North London is hosting an exhibition of Shawcross's smaller works. These pieces primarily serve as studies for 'Paradigm,' a monumental sculpture destined for the exterior of the new Francis Crick Institute in King's Cross. 'Paradigm' will be a 14-meter-tall twisting stack of weathered steel tetrahedrons, widening from one meter at its base to five meters at its summit as it ascends. This work is conceptually designed to embody the idea that new paradigms are built upon old ones until they eventually collapse, with the sculpture itself engineered to reach the maximum possible height before becoming structurally unstable. In April, Shawcross's 'Three Perpetual Chords,' a series of giant steel loops, was installed in Dulwich Park in South London. This public art piece replaced Barbara Hepworth's 'Two Forms Divided Circle,' which was stolen in 2011. These sculptures are described as approachable and tactile, inviting interaction from the public, particularly children and couples. They are designed to change in appearance with the seasons, polishing with use in the summer and rusting in the winter, reflecting the passage of time and human interaction. Further extending his reach, the New Art Centre, Roche Court in Wiltshire, is also showcasing a collection of Shawcross's works both indoors and outdoors until late July. The artist acknowledges the intense workload, describing the confluence of projects as a 'perfect storm,' partly due to the unpredictable nature of the art world. He relies on computer modeling and collaborates with engineering firms like Structure Workshop to ensure structural integrity and safety, as his large-scale works cannot be improvised significantly during production. For 'The Dappled Light of the Sun,' the sheer scale of the project necessitated external assistance, with only 20% of the work completed in his studio and the welding estimated to require twelve and a half years for a single person. Shawcross expressed hope that 'The Dappled Light of the Sun' will find a permanent home after the Royal Academy show, as it is designed for longevity and interactivity. #ConradShawcross #ArtInstallations #RoyalAcademyOfArts #VictoriaMiro #PublicArt #Sculpture #LondonArtScene #Tetrahedron #ArchitecturalArt #ConradShawcross #ArtInstallations #RoyalAcademyOfArts #VictoriaMiro #PublicArt #Sculpture #LondonArtScene #Tetrahedron #ArchitecturalArt