Artist Conrad Shawcross has installed a woodland of steel tetrahedrons in the Royal Academy’s Annenberg Courtyard.
‘The Dappled Light of the Sun’ – previewed here via his Instagram account – is part of the Academy’s Summer Exhibition, opening to the public on 8 June.
‘At first, it could look like a sort of First World War, anti-tank barrier,’ said Shawcross, speaking to architect David Chipperfield in the RA Magazine. ‘But, on further observation, it will reveal itself as a complex rule-based piece full of feral, chaotic, beautiful, flowing energy, juxtaposed against this very ordered courtyard.’
Shawcross’ canopy of tetrahedrons sits atop six-ft-high tripod stands, allowing visitors to walk underneath. When the sun is shining, it casts kaleidoscopic shadows on the floor.
‘As the title suggests, there will be dappled light and strong shadows,’ added Shawcross. ‘They will provide, like real trees, a place to which people might gravitate and then sit.’
The Summer Exhibition 2015 runs from 8 June – 16 August 2015. A selection of Shawcross’ sculptures are also on show at the New Art Centre in Wiltshire until 26 July.
