Balmond’s acclaimed sculpture makes UK debut

July 21, 2014  |   Feature,   World
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Artist, architect and scholar Cecil Balmond’s critically acclaimed sculpture H_Edge makes its UK debut in London’s Spitalfields.

H_Edge has been installed in the reflecting pool opposite the Allen & Overy building in Spitalfields, London, and will be on temporary view through Friday, 3 October 2014.

Following the huge popularity of its appearance at the Museo Salvatore Ferragamo, Balmond will exhibit his highly regarded sculpture H_Edge for the first time in the UK.
Following the huge popularity of its appearance at the Museo Salvatore Ferragamo, Balmond will exhibit his highly regarded sculpture H_Edge for the first time in the UK.

H_Edge echoes its surroundings in reflecting plates and, for London’s appearance, a shimmering pool. More than an art installation, H_Edge functions as a spatial ‘sieve’, giving form to the void. The sculpture generates a new dimension within the city; a strange forest, a non-space; for contemplation and reflection.

Blurring the boundaries between art and structure, H_Edge is assembled using thousands of ‘x’-shaped aluminium plates which are held, one above the other, in tension by stainless steel chains that behave like columns. What appears to hang from overhead, on closer inspection, rises from the floor in a seemingly impossible balance of forces. The layers of silver planes form an ethereal, metallic, maze that visitors are free to walk around, within and through.
Blurring the boundaries between art and structure, H_Edge is assembled using thousands of ‘x’-shaped aluminium plates which are held, one above the other, in tension by stainless steel chains that behave like columns. What appears to hang from overhead, on closer inspection, rises from the floor in a seemingly impossible balance of forces. The layers of silver planes form an ethereal, metallic, maze that visitors are free to walk around, within and through.

Belmond sees his work as an open-ended visual application of theory, following the principle that “structure as conceptual rigour is architecture.” He collaborated with Anish Kapoor on the public art projectArcelorMittal Orbit the 120m high sculpture designed for the 2012 Olympics in London, the Marsyas sculpture displayed in the Tate Modern (2002), and the giant Tees Valley art installations with Kapoor.

Cecil Balmond and artist Anish Kapoor pose with Kapoor's winning design for the 2012 Olympic Park in London, England. The steel structure entitled "The ArcelorMittal Orbit."
Cecil Balmond and artist Anish Kapoor pose with Kapoor’s winning design for the 2012 Olympic Park in London, England. The steel structure entitled “The ArcelorMittal Orbit.”