Two public works of art are being commissioned by the Borough as part of the Kensington Academy and Leisure Centre scheme. One is destined for inside the building while the other will be outside in the redesigned open space of Lancaster Green near Latimer Road station. This is part of a £57.8m investment in North Kensington with £40.2m of funding committed by the council and an additional £17.6m Government funding for the Kensington Aldridge Academy.
The opportunity for a large scale landmark sculpture has already attracted a shortlist of five world renowned artists. Nigel Hall RA, Nick Hornby working with Sinta Tantra, Paul Hosking, and Julian Opie are all working on proposals.
Celebrated sculptor Nick Hornby is collaborating with painter Sinta Tantra on An Arch Never Sleeps . This symbolic arch touches on the diverse cultures and histories of the local landscape; from the colours of Carnival to Holland Park Opera, the V&A, the Royal Parks, Imperial College, Leighton House, Madonna’s recording studio, and even the film Notting Hill. Hornby and Tantra have recognised the multiple demands and implications of public art commissions:
‘Public artworks are often asked to do the impossible,’ Hornby says, ‘to deal with the narrative of the site, appeal to audiences and the commissioner, to be relevant to today and also in one hundred years time; to withstand the presence of architecture but also be a genuine art object, which is true to the experimentation of an artist’s studio work. We believe this object does just that, it is a risk, it is ambitious and it pushes our individual practice whilst also appealing to a wide range of people.’
If their work wins a place, they will become part of the Borough’s famous public art landscape. The sculptural glyptotheque of Kensington and Chelsea celebrates an array of historical figures in the form of war memorials, obelisks, fountains and bronze sylphs. The Royal Borough is aggrandized by the commemorative sculptures of figurative simulcraof men, and very few women, of derring-do. From the heroicVolodymer the Great,in Holland Park Avenue to Ernest Shackleton, in polar clothing outside the Royal Geographical Society on Exhibition Road. Contemporary sculpture tends to be domestic in scale, and is represented by Eilis O’Connell’s Unfurledat Kensington Gate, and Vaclav Voklek’s Haiku at the Czech Embassy on Notting Hill Gate. Community projects also feature widely, including large scale murals and mosaics such as the mural for the Urban Eye/Westway Project on the Carnival Bridge at Portobello Road.
Later this month, an interview panel with representatives from the Kensington Aldridge Academy, Leisure Centre, the Public Art Panel and local Councillors, will meet to select the final artist.