Cathy's Art Diary

Striking display at London Bridge Station, as part of the Totally Thames Festival, of large, collaged photographs of river scenes by Henry Reichhold. The views were of Henley Regatta and the Great River Race and were compiled of a montage of images capturing the complex event into one image. The large, freestanding display, had two large and two smaller images of Henley on one side which were full of people and action. On the other side, the river race is shown as an aerial view of lots of boats going in different directions against an oddly blue river. The display might have had more impact if a charity stall hadn't set itself up at one end making it a bit off putting to stop to admire and engage with the work. Closes 30 September 2025

Lovely new public sculpture on the upper level of London Bridge station by Jaume Plensa. I found this by chance when catching a train. I was drawn towards it to find out what it was. It is outside the station and is in two parts. The main figure is outside in the Shards Piazza and it speaks to a head and shoulders version hanging over the escalators down to the lower level. The figures seem to be made up of a filigree of letters and checking the website I learn they are from seven different alphabets. I like the way they look solid and yet you can see the urban environment around them through the work. As you can see the photo when I was there a small child was enjoying playing inside the main figure.

Interesting new public sculpture in Tanner Street Park, off Bermondsey Street led by Austin Emery, a local stonemason. This new work is made of Portland, Bath and other limestones as well as marble, brick and bones from the River Thames and crafted in free public stone carving workshops which were then assembled into this single artwork. It matches a sister piece on Tyers Estate. It includes fragments from St Paul’s, Westminster Abbey and the recently demolished arches at nearby London Bridge. It struck me as being like a Eduardo Paolozzi in style from a distance and I liked the detail as you looked closer like a skull, a handprint and various faces. A nice addiction to the park.

Sweet sculpture trail around the London Bridge area featuring figures based on Raymond Brigg’s Snowman and decorated by contemporary artists. There were twelve figures in the trail based on the Twelve Days of Christmas and it was presented by Wild in Art, a producer of public events, in collaboration with Penguin Ventures (part of Penguin Random House UK). I only had time to find three of them as I was rushing for a train but my favourite of the ones I saw was this one by Jenny Leonard representing Four Calling Birds, a joke I didn’t get at the time! Closes 5 January 2020