One of the nice things about Ikon Eastside was how the artists were encouraged to work with the surrounding environment using found scrap metal or making wine from canal-side plants. While the Eastside project has ended for the year it’s good to see there’s still work being done that interacts with the city rather then just being in it.
Chandelier by Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi is a temporary off-site work, providing the finale for Ikon’s Eastside programme for 2007. This exciting new work consists of several street lights that have been conjoined, inverted and hoisted into the air by an industrial crane to create an oversized chandelier, illuminating the night sky in a cartoon-like gesture.
Nishi is renowned for his major architectural installations, playing with our sense of scale and position, to alter our perceptions of a familiar environment. Seeking to forge a connection between an individual and their surroundings, his typically witty works reconsider overlooked elements of urban design or public sculpture. Often involving the aesthetics of the construction site, Nishi’s projects literally embody processes of change, physically adjusting our relationship to common sights and locations that have become so well known to us, they are almost invisible. Forgotten detail is given a new prominence whilst that regarded as remote takes on fresh significance.
There’s a load more links related to Tatzu Nishi in this Things post.
Chandelier takes place on the building side by Curzon Circle, the roundabout where Curzon St meets the Middleway, until November 15th.