LEPE COUNTRY PARK: THE SCULPTURE TRAIL

 

Tanvi Anand: Bat & Ball, 2018

You’d look bad, too, if your ball

was a lump of concrete.

All of which may be an exactingly realised

fake of historical trauma

to make the point

that truth doesn’t always out.

 

 

Per Carlsen: Equivalent MMXX, 2020

In the absence of function

we’re left with doubt:

are these bricks pretending to be art,

or art pretending to be bricks?

Neither, post-Andre, post-Kirkeby,

could very well count as shocks.

 

James Hook: Crocodillo, 2016

Rather skinny,

even for a crocodile. 

Would bulge like a python

if it had swallowed

the dog of the lead 

that's got snagged on its tail.

 

Coral Walker-Parr: Notice, 2016

 

‘Power Warning’: strong words 

boosted by prominent context and hazard hues:

the world needs to end its obsession with fuel.

‘Cable’ is the maverick,

designed – but why? – 

to complicate, if not confuse.

Catalina White: Near Passage, 2020

So long as the coronavirus

complicates our getting close,

the artist has arranged

around a dozen times a day

for two ships to virtually

kiss. 

 

Tyler Simmons: The Groyners, 2004

Surrealism enters

somewhere between Voodoo dolls,

70’s rock gods shorn of guitars 

and a frenzy of Sheela Na Gigs.

As if worn teeth

are wearing wigs.

 

 

Kanesha Johnson: Ring 2018

Without the tape

to set up a stutter of connections  

and emphasise precarity

this might not be art.

As it is, the meanings multiply:

where shall we start?

 

 

Neo Frage: Untitled, 2018

 If a grid can buckle under the stress,

despite the best efforts of straining pillars,

what hope is there for civilisation?

would be too histrionic

an interpretation.

But is the question worthy, nonetheless?

 

Nathalie Cole: Bounce, 2019

Beetles have wings,

so have no need of springs.

This must be a critique of redundancy.

Yet penguins have wings

but would probably love to have springs.

Perhaps it’s a critique of simplicity.

 

 

Sophie Debarre: Mandrin de Galets, 2020

You need your wits about you

to catch these action sculptures

and to  appreciate

how they speak

to the transitory nature of time.

It is already late.

Notes: 

Lepe Country Park occupies a narrow stretch of land adjoining the Solent, just west of Southampton Water and south of the New Forest. Facilities include an extensive children's play area. 

Equivalent MMXX: Carl Andre (particularly the notorious Equivalent VIII, 1966) and Per Kirkeby are known for art works utilising bricks.

Near Passage: The Southampton - Cowes ferry connects the mainland to the Isle of Wight.

Mandrel de Galets: Pebble Chucking