135 Camberwell New Rd, London SE5 0AT
Material Composition: Painted Steel
Scale: 1.4 m x 1.3 m x 3cm
Digital Files: Adriana Wynn
Construction: Bristol Welding Company.
Client: BUILDHOLLYWOOD
Budget: 20K
Sarah Staton’s Chicken and Egg commission opens London’s newest and smallest sculpture garden, Dancing in the Shadow of Henry, 135 Camberwell New Road. Taking its name from the Henry Moore sculpture Two Piece Reclining Figure No 3, located on the adjacent Brandon Estate, the garden presents a rolling program of newly commissioned sculpture, supported by the media company BUILDHOLLYWOOD.
Chicken and Egg is a plinth-based sculptural manifestation of the artist’s sketch, realised in painted steel. With this sculpture, the artist has created a playful and lively activation of the public realm. But let’s look more closely: this boomer chicken is dancing on the egg, revealing darker associative interpretations around the realisation that the forever conundrum between Chicken and Egg may be under threat, as human activity and political inaction challenge the continuation of life on earth, as we know it.
Artist’s comment: “Contemplative sculpture and hectic energy of a busy arterial London road don’t often meet directly in dialogue, but the Shadow of Henry proposes just such an interaction. There are, of course, some precedents where road meets sculpture: we might think back to post war Europe, to sculpture commissioned at the time when roundabouts were seen as innovative - sculpture sitting in the round, to be viewed from the window of a passing car, can add a heady frisson to the already enlivening experience of careering around a curve. Or we might think of the brilliant placement of the Angel of North, where a lavish excess of vertical and horizontal Corten steel presides over the northern extent of the M1 motorway. The Angel of the North, posing as a marker, as a gateway, is ticking strong emotional triggers around identity: North versus South, Us versus You. The sculptures you will find in the Shadow of Henry manifest as street-side, people-friendly, human scale propositions”.