A towering inflatable artwork will dramatically intervene on London's skyline to commemorate the Southbank Centre's 75th anniversary. The Pin Drop, created by Gareth Pugh and Carson McColl, is set to be revealed today (Thursday, April 30), rising 20 metres in height while hanging 20 metres above ground level at the celebrated arts venue.
Artistic Vision and Design
The Pin Drop is an inflatable installation that launches the centre's You Are Here anniversary series, honouring 75 years of British music, dance, theatre, fashion and film. Discussing the installation, Pugh explained they aimed to produce something "current, modern and visually arresting" and a "visual punch in the face". The inflatable piece features internal LED lighting which Pugh said enables it to "act as a beacon, intervening on the London skyline". McColl continued: "It's very ambitious and there's been thousands of people involved to bring it together, and at this particular moment in culture, it's been quite a challenge to really get that across the line."
Public Art and London's Identity
Deputy mayor for culture and the creative industries Justine Simons, who attended the launch, underlined the importance of public art like the Pin Drop being "dynamic" and representing the capital as it exists now. She said: "If you look around London, lots of our public realm tends to reflect a Victorian story of London through the statues and the monuments. What's really important is that our public realm and our public art is dynamic and it's changing and it reflects who we are as a city today."
The sculpture draws comparisons to the Skylon, a slender vertical steel structure erected for the 1951 Festival of Britain, which stood on the South Bank before being taken down just a year after its installation. The Pin Drop reveal comes just ahead of the Southbank Centre's anniversary programme launching on Sunday, which seeks to champion a message of unity and foster "a sense of agency" amongst its audiences.
Unity and Cultural Power
McColl said: "The show at heart is a rebuttal to the divisiveness that we see around us in politics, trying to create a moment of togetherness and deploy the message that the only way through things is together. Each of those five acts tells the same story in a different way and that story is that the only way through things is together." He added: "It's trying to create a sort of intervention in people's lives. People will come to this show not knowing what to expect and what we hope to do is inspire and electrify them and bring them together so they leave charged up. It's about inspiring a sense of agency in people that they actually can change the future and that the only way to do it is together."
The Southbank Centre ranks amongst Europe's most prominent cultural institutions, playing host to prestigious events including the Bafta awards ceremony and the London Film Festival. McColl said: "One of the most interesting aspects of being here on the South Bank is that right across the river you can see the sea of power, and what we are hoping to explore with this show is that the people have power. It powers with culture, and that culture is upstream of politics. If we all come together to take things in our own hands and to gather around this message of unity, that hopefully will inspire that elsewhere."
Ms Simons continued: "Culture in London is so important. It's our DNA. Culture does so much more for us as humans, our city and our nation. It brings us together in times of hardship and in times of joy, and that is really vital to all big cities around the world, and especially London, and the Southbank Centre exemplifies that story."
