Join us for a talk with theCOLAB looking at their recent public sculpture commissions.
For this week’s ‘Emerging Voices’ programme, join theCOLAB with Jodie Carey and Candida Powell-Williams at RSA House for an evening of discussion around two monumental new commissions for the Artist’s Garden: ‘Earthen’ by Jodie Carey and ‘Auguries through the Mist’ by Candida Powell-Williams.
The two artists have responded to the theme of the garden in vastly different ways. ‘Auguries’ is a fully functioning fountain which subverts the traditional fountain motif, creating a dripping and towering piece that challenges the garden’s architecture and philosophical implications. It alludes to the merging of spiritual and empirical worlds, a challenge to the perception of women and to the wider hierarchies of rational thought and knowledge. Meanwhile, ‘Earthen’ is a testament to female ‘weeders’ who worked on palace gardens that originally housed the Artist’s Garden. This pair of monumental earth-cast pots celebrates these unnamed and, most likely, barely paid women whose labour continues to go unnoticed.
The evening will also feature readings by Hersha Verity of the poetry of Alice Oswald, exploring the parallels between poetry and sculpture.
theCOLAB is an independent, women-led collaborative laboratory and registered charity that unites people, land and art. We commission epic, life-affirming and career-defining sculptural works in undervalued and underused outdoor public spaces across the country from a coastal commissioning programme in Morecambe Bay to our exploratory drawing residency BODY and PLACE in the West of England. theCOLAB’s headline project, The Artist’s Garden, based on the roof terrace above Temple Tube Station in London is the world’s first and only sculpture garden dedicated to the work of women artists. It is a beacon for best practice in putting back into use neglected public space and a platform for achieving gender parity in outdoor public sculpture.
The Artist’s Garden has transformed a 1,400sqm hidden and neglected roof terrace above Temple tube station into a place for the public to experience large-scale artistic interventions by women artists through a vibrant programme of artist commissions, residencies in the Artist’s Hut and an education programme for 13-16 year olds with Westminster’s City Lions.
Situated next to Somerset House and accessible by steps from Temple Place, it is only a 7-minute walk from RSA. It is open to the public all day every day for free from 8am until dusk.
