Canary Wharf has had an invasion of people who are far from the stereotypical smart white-shirted, suited financial experts that fill the banking floors of the towering buildings rising up from the public spaces. On the piazza outside One Canada Square, Sean Henry’s ‘Standing Man’ looks out while inside the grand architecture of the Lobby different people stand, lie and do acrobatics.
Look into the eyes of these sculptures by Rayveen Shaleigha D’Clark, Sean Henry, Aron Demetz, Carole Freuerman, Warren King and Tom Price. Can you see into their souls? Can you see what they might be thinking as they watch the constant stream of people passing through? Some of their eyes are closed; some have no eyes, just sockets and deep cavities.
Made in a variety of different materials, these sculptures have been brought together by Keith Watson because they do not, like the grand statues in places such as Parliament Square and Trafalgar Square, depict real people that you can identify. Rather, you have to reach into their soul and give some of your own, to give your own meaning of who they are. While on the one hand, they link back to ancient art such as that of the Greeks, they are also bang up to date, with Rayveen Shaleigha D’Clark’s 3D printing, the Recycle Group, where you download the app to bring these rectangular frames to life, seen previously at Gazelli Arts, and Jonty Hurwitz’ ‘catoptric’ three dimension sculptures with their optical twists and turns, including the smallest sculpture ever made – a woman dancing on a human hair, created using nano-technology and seen here in photographs.
Who needs an art gallery when you have the Lobby at One Canada Square with the latest in its excellent programme of exhibitions. Will the Canary Wharf Group will do something similar in their new development on London’s South Bank?