Continuing its popular programme of striking outdoor installations, offering free access to art for all, the Hayward Gallery announces a series of newly commissioned artworks from award-winning artists Anthea Hamilton, Jyll Bradley and Monira Al Qadiri. These brand new commissions will be joined by the ever-popular aquatic sculptures Klaus Weber’s Thinking Fountains, 2021 and Jeppe Hein’s Appearing Rooms.
Ralph Rugoff, Director at the Hayward Gallery, says: “All of these outdoor commissions are part of our ongoing effort to make the most of the Southbank Centre’s outstanding site by presenting a free cultural playground where visitors can engage with an inspiring range of accessible public installations by leading international and British artists. Anyone simply walking across the site can encounter and experience playful works of art that spur the imagination and prompt us to see the world in fresh ways.”
Launching the 2022 series, Anthea Hamilton’s new 24-hour-long film installation has been commissioned specifically for the Hayward Gallery’s terrace that overlooks the Royal Festival Hall. On display from 12 March to 24 April, it will be shown on a six-metre-high LED screen and has been conceived in response to the gallery’s architecture and locality. The work features a photograph from the early 1980s intercut with new footage of four performers, each with their own distinctive approach and style. The performers draw on a diverse repertoire of images and references to generate new movement sequences that are mapped onto the 24-hour cycle of a clock.
Bringing to light a forgotten chapter of cultural history, The Hop is a new commission by Jyll Bradley that was inspired by the stories of thousands of families who travelled from London every year to bring in the hop harvest in the fields of Kent. Standing at almost four metres in height, the installation will echo the geometric design of a Kentish hop garden, where vines were arranged to expose the crop to the maximum amount of sunlight. Using her signature material of coloured Plexiglas, Bradley will create a luminous series of public canopies alongside the Hayward Gallery. The installation will be on site from 18 May to 2 October.
In summer 2022, the Hayward Gallery continues its three-year partnership with the Bagri Foundation, presenting a new commission by Kuwaiti artist Monira Al Qadiri whose multifaceted practice spans sculpture, installation, film and performance. For this second Bagri Foundation Commission, Al Qadiri will create a visually mesmerising large-scale sculpture in iridescent hues on the Riverside Terrace in front of the Royal Festival Hall to reimagine links between nature and the fragility of our dependency on fossil fuels. Al Qadiri’s commission will be available to view from August to November (dates to be announced).
Alongside these three new commissions, the summer months will see the return of popular familiar works. Making a splash with visitors, Klaus Weber’s 2021 work Thinking Fountains and Jeppe Hein’s interactive fountain Appearing Rooms return to the Southbank Centre. Thinking Fountains features two larger-than-life bronze figures spouting water and a waterfall that cascades down from an elevated walkway. Inspired by historical traditions of portal sculptures that adorned the facades of Gothic cathedrals, the artwork transforms the entrance to the Hayward Gallery. Returning for the first time since 2019, Jeppe Hein’s Appearing Rooms is an artwork that takes the form of a fountain. A highly popular piece with children and families, it features walls of water rising and falling randomly to create a series of constantly changing ‘rooms’. The feature was first installed at the Southbank Centre in 2007, and has returned almost every year.
Klaus Weber’s Thinking Fountains, 2021, is supported by Art Fund, HENI and the Hayward Gallery Commissioning Committee, with additional support from the Rothschild Foundation.
The commissioned installation by Anthea Hamilton has been presented with the support of the Hayward Gallery Commissioning Committee, with additional support from Thomas Dane Gallery, Candida and Zak Gertler, and kaufmann repetto, Milan / New York.
Jyll Bradley’s The Hop, 2022, has been realised with the generous support of the Hayward Gallery ??Commissioning Committee, and significant additional support from David Maclean.
The Hayward Gallery’s 2022 commission by Monira Al Qadiri is generously supported by the Bagri Foundation.
