Hymn to the Big Wheel: Art Installation by Liz West

Curated by MASSIVart

Hymn to the Big Wheel, by artist Liz West, is an immersive sculptural work exploring the illusion and physicality of color and natural light in space. Consisting of a multi-colored octagon nestled within a larger octagonal shape, this work encourages the viewer to reposition and align themselves to differing colorways to see a changing scope of colors mixing before their eyes.

Constructed using transparent colored sheets, the work prompts the playful movement of visitors to explore the work in context with their surroundings. This saturated installation is an energizing beacon of color that radiates across the space it inhabits, creating an intriguing interplay of colored shadows for people to discover. The viewer becomes performer within the work as they move around the inside and outside of the structure to explore the changing optics and colorways mixing within the installation. The jewel-like colors create diverse mixes and blends when viewed from different angles from around the installation, as well as producing a sundial effect by casting multi-colored shadows on the asphalt.

Hymn to the Big Wheel was originally commissioned by Canary Wharf Group for Summer Lights 2021.

This artwork was also on view previously at Manhattan West from August 11 – September 5.

Liz West (b.1985) is a British artist known for her wide-ranging works, from the intimate to the monumental. Using a variety of materials and exploring the use of light, she blurs the boundaries between sculpture, architecture, design, and painting to create works that are both playful and immersive.

West aims to provoke a heightened sensory awareness in the viewer through her works and is interested in exploring how sensory phenomena can invoke psychological and physical responses that tap into our own deeply entrenched relationships to color. West’s investigation into the relationship between color and light is often realized through an engagement between materiality and a given site. Our understanding of color can only be realized through the presence of light.

West has been commissioned worldwide by institutions and organizations including Natural History Museum, London; National Trust and National Science and Media Museum, both in the UK; London Design Festival; Paris Fashion Week; Milan Design Week; Dubai Design Week, and the Bristol Biennial, UK; among others. West’s work has been included in exhibitions at St Albans Museum + Gallery, Chester Cathedral, and Compton Verney, all in England; Musée Nissim de Camondo, Paris; Kraftwerk Berlin; and Bangalore International Centre, India.