Ugo Rondinone presents yellow orange hermit (2022) as part of the permanent public art programme at Paddington Square, London, designed by Renzo Piano. This ambitious art initiative represents a major investment into the public realm by Great Western Developments, who commissioned the public art programme working in conjunction with leading London-based cultural studio Lacuna.
The five-metre-tall sculpture addresses the dual reflection between the inner self and the natural world providing a new focal point for the millions of visitors travelling between Praed Street and Paddington station each year. Conceived from limestone models, the monumental work is cast in bronze after scans of the friable material are reconfigured into solid three-dimensional forms using digital tools. Rondinone responds to the stone’s natural, ancient origins in contemporary contexts and environments, opening up onto the world, to nature, and turning inward on oneself.
Stones have been a presence and recurring material and symbol in my art. They are the subjects of the stone figures that I began with the monumental human nature installation at the Rockefeller Plaza in 2013 followed by Seven Magic Mountains in the Nevada desert in 2016. yellow orange hermit will continue to address the dual reflection between the inner self and the natural world. Just as the external world one sees is inseparable from the internal structures of oneself, this work allows layers of signification to come in and out of focus, prompting the viewer to revel in the pure sensory experience of colour, form and mass while simultaneously engendering an altogether contemporary version of the sublime. — Ugo Rondinone, October 2020
The five-metre-tall sculpture addresses the dual reflection between the inner self and the natural world providing a new focal point for the millions of visitors travelling between Praed Street and Paddington station each year. Conceived from limestone models, the monumental work is cast in bronze after scans of the friable material are reconfigured into solid three-dimensional forms using digital tools. Rondinone responds to the stone’s natural, ancient origins in contemporary contexts and environments, opening up onto the world, to nature, and turning inward on oneself.
Stones have been a presence and recurring material and symbol in my art. They are the subjects of the stone figures that I began with the monumental human nature installation at the Rockefeller Plaza in 2013 followed by Seven Magic Mountains in the Nevada desert in 2016. yellow orange hermit will continue to address the dual reflection between the inner self and the natural world. Just as the external world one sees is inseparable from the internal structures of oneself, this work allows layers of signification to come in and out of focus, prompting the viewer to revel in the pure sensory experience of colour, form and mass while simultaneously engendering an altogether contemporary version of the sublime. — Ugo Rondinone, October 2020