1. Art and Diseño

& Nine Elms on the
South Bank Art Guide
Riverlight
Art Map
1. TERRA LUDI
Simon & Tom Bloor
2. LIGHT & WATER
Kate Davis & David Moore
3. SKYSTATION
Peter Newman
4. STUDIORCA
Project Space
This commission takes as inspiration the European
Romantic tradition of creating artificial rock forms
for landscape schemes. Two elements make up
the artwork, the first is a geometric rocky outcrop
and tree trunk sculpture that references the
natural materials often used in play schemes
but is created from concrete and bronze, materials
more associated with the built environment and
art history. The second element is a network of
100 concrete stepping-stones, scattered along
the Thames Riverside and Nine Elms Lane. Terra
Ludi has been created to encourage passers-by
to climb, explore and interact with the public realm.
Here you will discover something magical; a tree
house or dolls house, sits openly yet half-concealed
in a large London plane tree on the banks of the
Thames beside the charming boat-houses moored
at Riverlight.
Skystation is an interactive public sculpture, inspired
by Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand’s LC4 chaiselongue, that also acts as a piece of public seating.
The contours of the work are designed to fit the
reclining human form and encourage contemplation
of the vast expanse of space above. An object
to be both observed and used, Skystation has
the incidental effect of bringing its users’ heads
into close proximity, thereby making conversation
between strangers almost inevitable. In the best
tradition of British street furniture, it has a
commemorative plaque, which reads ‘In Loving
Memory Of Those Yet To Be Born’.
StudioRCA is a new project space established by the
Royal College of Art, London’s leading postgraduate
art and design institution and St James’ Group.
The studio provides a supportive platform for RCA
students – many of whom will become pioneers in
their field. The space will act as a test-bed for their
ideas and offer them the opportunity to engage with
a public audience. The StudioRCA provides a window
into an artist’s practice, in turn letting a public
audience experience artwork as it develops and
transforms over a period of time.
And again we find from this source of shimmering
intensity, a series of ripples spreading across the
landscaped areas which bring more glinting light,
as if taken from the river into the new environment,
announcing or recalling the sparkle and presence
of the Thames.
The whole effect is a beautifully conceived and
embedded series of works that catch you unawares;
you don’t feel you have been confronted by a work
of public art, instead you feel you have discovered
something, hidden in plain view.
For almost twenty years Peter Newman has been
making photographs, sculptures, paintings and video
installations that address a human relationship to
space and modernity. From individual to collective
means to describe, traverse and connect. The city
is seen as a primary instrument of communication
and a reflection of creative intent.
The RCA Riverlight Award is an initiative that forms
a part of this partnership with the St James’ Group
which supports emerging contemporary artists from
the Royal College of Fine Art’s School of Fine Art
to create a permanent commission at Riverlight.
The programme will select and commission five RCA
Fine Art students to realise permanent site-specific
artworks for the five large residential lobbies at
St James’ Roger Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSH + P)
Riverlight scheme. These lobby spaces will create a
series of four high-profile public gallery windows onto
Nine Elms Lane and one onto the Thames River Walk.
Kate Davis and David Moore live and work between
London and Edinburgh . Both teach sculpture
at the Royal College of Art and The University
of Edinburgh respectively.
In 2010 they started working under the collective
banner ‘ME-WE Productions’ and have undertaken
to work collaboratively on commissions, exhibitions
and artists residencies.
Design by Praline
Simon & Tom Bloor’s works and projects focus on
our often ambivalent relationship to the structures
of public space. They aim to explore art making
as a playful process and play as a creative process.
The exquisitely detailed surface of this little Tudor
house is so reflective that at times it seems to
disappear into the foliage of the tree. The tree
house / dolls house presence is intensified by its
condensed scale, appearing simultaneously futuristic
and historic. The tree itself seems to have become
enchanted by this addition and appears to have
sprouted shiny leaves, which have fallen and blown
across the pathways and benches nearby.
RO
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RIVERLIGHT ARTWORKS
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TERRA LUDI Simon & Tom Bloor
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LIGHT & WATER Kate Davis & David Moore
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SKYSTATION Peter Newman
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STUDIORCA Project Space
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Battersea Power Station
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New Covent Garden Market
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Albert Embankment
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GALLERIES/MUSEUMS
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Garden Museum
10 Beaconsfield Contemporary Art
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Gasworks Gallery
12 Pump House Gallery
13 Studio Voltaire
14 Royal College of Art
15 Newport Street Gallery (2015)
16 Tate Britain
17 Imperial War Museum
18 575 Wandsworth Road
19 Cabinet Gallery (2016)
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ST JAMES’ PARK
NINE ELMS:
A NEW CULTURAL DISTRICT FOR LONDON
Futurecity developed a cultural strategy for
Riverlight that celebrates its position at the
heart of Nine Elms on the South Bank and marks
a significant continuation of the ongoing legacy
of commitment to culture by St James. The
development of the public areas at Riverlight
benefit from the installation of a series of ambitious
embedded artworks by leading contemporary
artists. All of the commissions have been developed
over a number of years in close collaboration with
Gillespies, the landscape architects of the scheme.
Taking the themes of water and light and the
possibilities for play within the public realm, newly
commissioned sculptural works encourage passersby and residents alike to interact with, observe and
enjoy the changing light and landscape at Riverlight.
In addition to the permanent works, a changing
programme of exhibitions will be on display at
StudioRCA, a new project space for Nine Elms
located at One Riverlight Quay, where students
from the Royal College of Art will present artworks
and work in progress. Riverlight is a pioneering
development that has put art and culture at its
heart. Its launch in October 2014 marks a key
moment in the evolution of Nine Elms, a new
cultural district for London.
BLACKF RIARS ROAD
GREEN PARK
For more information on cultural resources in the wider area visit:
wandsworth.gov.uk
lambeth.gov.uk
For a comprehensive overview of the transformation of Nine Elms
on the South Bank visit:
nineelmslondon.com
Photography © Ron Bambridge