Two artists have been commissioned to install new sculptures outside the new Liverpool Street Elizabeth line station.
Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama will create her first permanent UK installation at Broadgate, while the British artist Conrad Shawcross will create a bronze sculpture outside the station’s western entrance at Moorgate.
They are also the final two artists selected to create new works of public art for the Crossrail Art Programme.
Kusama’s installation, ‘Infinite Accumulation’, develops her recognisable motif – the polka dot – into a series of flowing, mirrored steel sculptures, each up to 12 metres wide and 10 metres tall. Tubular rods will support a sequence of polished spheres, guiding passengers from the public spaces outside the station into the eastern entrance of the Elizabeth line station at Broadgate.
Meanwhile, taking inspiration from musical harmony, Conrad Shawcross has used a machine based on the Victorian harmonograph – with its two pendulums that draw the oscillation of a sound wave – to map the complex shape of a specific piano chord that is falling into silence. The resulting ‘drawing’ will be sculpted in three dimensions using bronze to create a signpost at the entrance of the station.
The Kusama artwork will be funded by the commercial property company British Land who are creating a new mixed-use neighbourhood, Broadgate, adjacent to Liverpool Street station. The Shawcross artwork will be funded by Landsec.
Match funding for all Crossrail programme artworks is being provided by City of London.
Looks ok. But in comparison it seems very odd and the design isn’t as great when you see it in real life. But overall it looks amazing.