There is a work of art that is as baffling as it is pointless sitting on the street behind an office block near Euston.

In line with modern thinking, new blocks of offices are adorned with art to drown out the monotonous aesthetic of the glass and steel edifices. Sometimes it works fairly well, such as at Canary Wharf.

And sometimes. Well, oh dear.

I saw the yellow gates while on a casual amble around, and pondered… are they a historic relic, something preserved for historic reasons, and now incongruously still standing sentinel as gates within long since vanished walls?

Or are they art?

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Normally, either situation would be enlightened by the presence of a small metal plaque nearby to educate the curious, but in this case, education came from downloading a PDF document off their website when I got home.

According to the blurb… it’s an award-winning piece by Siôn Parkinson who “imaginatively combines different styles of wrought ironwork seen on domestic railings and gates in London to signify the city, and instead of including the pineapples that so often are seen within these designs, the metal is actually painted the vivid yellow colour of ripe pineapples with a translucent paint”

So basically, it’s a gate, it’s been painted yellow, and now it’s art.

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I look forward to every garden gate being painted this weekend by visitors to their local hardware store being awarded the same adulation.

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2 comments
  1. Carrie G Rutherford says:

    > There is a work of art that is as baffling as it is pointless..

    Isn’t that the definition of art?

  2. Johnny Zed says:

    So what award did it win then? Anyway it’s broken, one of the spiky bits is missing.

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