Thousands of travellers pass through King’s Cross Station every week, but the holiday season is a hectic time as folks travel across the country to visit family and friends. Ahead of their journey, they can get a dose of festive joy thanks to a temporary sculptural installation on Granary Square by artist Liz West.
Fluorescence is a 10.7-metre-high tetrahedron illuminated with bold, fluorescent neon stripes of colour. Its elongated, geometric structure is made from aluminium, fluorescent vinyl, and plywood with UV lamps and riffs on the silhouette of a Christmas tree, which is conceived as a glowing beacon of joy through the bleak winter months.
‘From my own personal experience, I find that people need a much-needed boost of vibrant colour and light at this dark time of year,’ West tells us. ‘Fluorescence combines my signature colour palette (with the surprise addition of black to break up the neon hues), with my fascination with geometry and scale to create a modern interpretation of a Christmas tree.’
Photography: John Sturrock
Photography: John Sturrock
Photography: John Sturrock
Diagonal bands of colour intersect around the structure, encouraging people to move around the space to explore how the colours connect and change from different angles. And as night falls, UV lighting makes the installation glow, turning it into a luminous beacon to Granary Square.
Fluorescence is the latest in the annual Granary Square winter installation series, commissioned by Kings Cross, London, and the outdoor artwork is on show until February 2025.
It’s not the only joy West is spreading this winter, however. Up north, at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West unveiled her immersive colour installation Our Reflection, which takes over the venue’s historic 18th-century chapel. Coloured discs cast vibrant, shimmering reflections across the interior of the church, bathing viewers in light. Read more on that here.
