1

Art
in the
Park
A FIELD GUIDE
a field guide to art in the park 2 3 USING THIS GUIDE

Queen Elizabeth Olympic This book is a field guide to the 26 permanent

artworks in the Park. There’s a map at the back and
Park was the first Olympic each artwork has a number to help you locate them.
Going to find the artworks is just as important as all
Park to integrate artworks the reading and looking you can do here.

into the landscape right from These artworks have been made to be experienced
the start. We worked with in the landscape – up close and from afar. Touch
them, sit inside them, run across them, walk beneath
established and emerging them. Gaze up, make games, take photographs, put
yourself in their shadow.
artists, international and local,
to create an ambitious, diverse
art programme that reflects the
Park’s identity as a place for
people from around the world
and around the corner.

Some of these artworks are large and striking,

while others are smaller and harder to find. All
of them were created specifically for this Park by
contemporary artists who worked closely with
the architects, designers and construction teams
to develop and install their works.

Their inspirations are varied: the undulating

landscape, buried histories, community memories,
song titles, flowing water, energy, ideas of shelter
and discovery. Yet all of them are rooted here, each
of them sparking new conversations with their
immediate environment and this richly textured
part of east London.
 “The trees mark time, the rings
trace landscapes and lives that
History Trees 2 3
have gone before.”

Ackroyd and Harvey Ackroyd and Harvey

British artists Ackroyd and Harvey created a series of living

artworks to mark the main entrances of the Park. Ten specimen trees,
chosen to reflect the biodiversity of the Park, each support a large
bespoke metal ring within their crown. The rings, engineered from

Aquatics Centre, and nine additional locations at entrances to the Park

bronze or stainless steel, are six metres in diameter and individually
engraved on the interior face with text capturing an archive of history
from each location.

The ring on the English oak nearest the

Aquatics Centre is inscribed with local
residents’ recollections of the area.
To mark the opening of the London 2012
Olympic and Paralympic Games the
shadow cast from the ring aligns each year
with a bronze ellipse laid into the ground.

For the full inscriptions of each of the rings

visit ackroydandharvey.com.

History Trees was supported by Mapping

Your Manor, a project by artist Lucy
Harrison, who worked with local people to
record shared stories and memories. These
personal accounts informed the words on
the rings – a way to remember the stories
of the Park and its surroundings.
1

To download recordings from the project

visit mappingyourmanor.com.

Sawn Cattle Bone / Manufacture Of Buttons / Buried

Olympic Running Track / Two Paleolithic Hand Axes /
World War Two Memorials / Roman Burial Vault / Coins
Caesar To Constantine / East London Waterworks /
Temple Mills Stream / Yellow-Faced Bee / Songthrush
And Starlings / Japanese Knotweed
Extract from one of the engraved rings
 “There’s a tradition of sculpture
doing a job. I tend to find a job
STELES 4 5
that I haven’t been asked to do

Keith Wilson and then I do it.”

Keith Wilson

Thirty-five striking and colourful posts line the Waterworks River,

bringing a distinctive identity to one of the main waterways in the
Park. Both sculptural and functional, like a chain of minimalist pop
monoliths, they evoke nautical waymarkers and have been made from
the same durable material as navigational water buoys. The Steles are
also practically useful as mooring posts, referencing the ongoing and
historical activity of boats and barges in this area.

The sleeves of the Steles are sprayed

with a tough polyelastomer coating, a kind
of plastic, that hardens as it dries. Wilson

Waterworks River
has experimented with covering a range
of everyday objects in this material,
including a bright orange armchair that
can be seen at the View Tube. To install
the Steles, a bespoke clamp was made that
dropped each sleeve into place from a
floating pontoon.

2
You can watch a video of the making of
Steles at keithwilsonstudio.com.

Step down to the

pontoons to see
Wilson’s diagram of Steles reveals the careful planning of the sequence of colours the Steles up close
WILD SWIMMER 6 7

Jo Shapcott

This poem by Jo Shapcott imagines the Park from water level. “Dive in”,
she writes, encouraging you to “swim” through the poem and the past,
as you look out over the Park’s canals and rivers. Shapcott uses the
metaphor of water to explore the fluid and changing history of this part of
east London, from Alfred the Great to the Industrial Revolution. The poem
finishes by emerging into the Aquatics Centre designed by Zaha Hadid,
in a contemporary celebration of architecture, energy and achievement.

Engraved on wooden structure near Carpenter’s Road

“Swim your heart out,” Shapcott writes, “for you are all gold”.

There are over eight kilometres of

waterways in and around the Park, which
have been important to civilisation for
centuries. From the time of the Vikings right
up to the present day, the waterways have
connected inland communities with London
and the bustling Thames. These histories,
accumulating like silt over time, are the
inspiration for Shapcott’s poem.

This image (left) by artist Neville Gabie is

taken in the Aquatics Centre where Shapcott’s
poem ends. It was part of his project Twelve
Seventy, developed during his residency on
the Park. The swimmer is one of the Park’s 3
former bus drivers, who was the first person
to swim in this pool in 2011.

See page 22 for more about Gabie’s work as

the Park’s artist-in-residence.

... Here, the River Lea became a man-made mesh

of streams and channels to drain the marsh,
a maze for lightermen, of channels through
old waste, today’s liquid green corridors. Bow Back Rivers
Count off rivers as you swim: Bow Creek, the Waterworks, beside Marshgate
Lane in 2005,
the Channelsea, the City Mill, Hennikers Ditch ...
south of the
From ‘Wild Swimmer’ Stadium
 8 9

Carpenter’s Road
Montfichet Road
CARPENTER’S CURVE BRICK FIELDS

B
4

4
Clare Woods Clare Woods

Brick Fields and Carpenter’s Inspired by her time living

Curve by British artist Clare in and around east London,
Woods are large-scale artworks Woods based her paintings
that wrap around the facades on imagery of the waterways
of two utility buildings. Woods and an imagined future of
first created the artworks as vast the landscape. She chose to
paintings. These were transferred make the mural from ceramic
onto over 88,000 ceramic tiles tiles in reference to the area’s
using digital printing and water manufacturing history as the site
jet cutting techniques, making it of the former Bow tile factory.
the most complex tile mural in
the world. Clare Woods at work on her large-scale
painting before it was transferred to
the tiles
 Simpson punched
the holes closely

OPEN FOLDS 10 11
together to create
undulating lines

DJ Simpson similar to those

found on maps

Open Folds is a large-scale artwork in two parts that wraps around

two utility buildings. One artwork has been created from dark
anodised aluminium to increase its resistance to weather, while
the other has a natural anodised silver finish. Punched-out holes form

Behind Clare Woods’ tile murals on Montfichet Road and Carpenter’s Road
patterned lines that run horizontally across the artwork, representing
an abstract interpretation of a landscape.

Simpson’s art practice focuses on

linemaking. In creating Open Folds, he
experimented with different ways of
making lines before deciding to use a
series of dots to create lines that still
looked hand drawn.

Throughout the manufacturing process,

Simpson wanted the artwork to retain
this feeling of being handmade, and
worked closely with the people who made
it to explore different ways of punching
the holes that would stay true to the
qualities of the original drawings.

“The combined effect of the hole

and the uneven deformation
from the punched dimple gives
the line a random quality. The
5

metal starts to look more fluid

and pliable, like an unpicked line
of stitching in cloth.”
DJ Simpson

One of Simpson’s original drawings

 12 13

Railway underpass next to Montfichet Road

By the Stadium
STREAMLINE FAST, FASTER, FASTEST

12
Jason Bruges Studio Jason Bruges Studio

Beneath the railway that leads 6

Running the length of one of
into Stratford, following the the Stadium island bridges, Fast,
Waterworks River, a series of Faster, Fastest is an interactive
motion-activated LED illuminations artwork that encourages people
light up the underpass, in a fluid, to compete against the lightning
rippling installation. This artwork speeds of their Olympic and
by Jason Bruges Studio illustrates Paralympic heroes. A sequence
the speeds of athletes and patterns of lights races across the bridge
made by their movements in and up a towering beacon that
the water. As you walk through, marks your speed as you chase
the lights mimic the shadows of the winning times. Press the button to start, then time
your run against the lights that race
swimmers overhead, immersing Swimmers from the London 2012 Games
Fast, Faster, Fastest will be up the beacon
you in an underwater atmosphere. were the inspiration for Streamline
activated in 2015.
 Joan Littlewood “Everyone an artist,
campaigning to
everyone a scientist.”
THE FUN PALACE 14 15
save Theatre Royal
in Stratford from
Joan Littlewood

Caroline Bird demolition in

the 70s

Poet Caroline Bird wrote this poem about the life and work of Joan
Littlewood who, among other things, was the life-force behind the
Theatre Royal in Stratford, which is still a landmark cultural venue now
known as Theatre Royal Stratford East. In the 1960s, Joan conceived
the Fun Palace with architect Cedric Price to be built on the site of the

Engraved on a wooden structure south of the ArcelorMittal Orbit

Park; a ground-breaking arts and education centre that would welcome
everybody. Although never built, Joan’s work on the Fun Palace and
her infectious personality remain an inspiration to many.

It is a love story. Joan and her theatre workshop.

They found a crumbling old slum in E15. They slept
illegally in the eaves like ghosts with unfinished business.
She created Oh What A Lovely War. She shovelled rubble
from Angel Lane. She said, ‘Let the waters close over me.’
She was an outsider. She grafted. She changed the world ...
From ‘The Fun Palace’

October 2014 marks 100 years since

Littlewood was born. A nationwide
celebration of the Fun Palace headed by
writer and theatre maker Stella Duffy
sees hundreds of organisations and artists
across the UK celebrate Littlewood’s
7

quest for engagement through a wealth of

different projects. Many of the current and
future arts and culture programmes on the
Park will keep this ethos of the Fun Palace
at their core, in the place where Littlewood
had originally envisioned it.

For more information, visit

funpalaces.co.uk and thelegacylist.org.uk.
FANTASTIC FACTOLOGY 16 17

Klassnik Corporation,
Riitta Ikonen, We Made That

All over the Park, tucked away on silver plaques set into benches,
amazing facts and local recollections tell an alternative story of
the Park and provide an opportunity to wonder and learn. Topics
as diverse as astrology and zoology sit alongside more personal
memories and thoughtful moments. The project was a collaboration
between London-based architecture and design studio We Made That,
artist Riitta Ikonen, and the Klassnik Corporation, an interdisciplinary

More than 50 locations around the Park

design practice.

Over 2,000 facts were submitted by both

local residents and famous people, such
as the late astronomer Patrick Moore and
mathematician Johnny Ball. These weird
and wonderful fragments of knowledge are
an unusual twist on the traditional park
bench plaque.

11

The design team ran a series of events and

participatory workshops to inspire and
collect facts, asking everyone from school
children to senior groups.

Seek out more

See also Fantasticology on page 47 by than 50 facts
Klassnik Corporation, Riitta Ikonen and hidden around
We Made That. the Park
 18 19 All 2,000 cubes
were handmade
in Leytonstone
from hardwearing
Move onto text page Accoya wood. They
and lose one of the were carefully
sanded and
diagrams scorched by hand
to create the dark
surfaces

By the Stadium

The Podium
ARCELORMITTAL ORBIT pixel wall

10
9
Sir Anish Kapoor, Cecil Balmond Tomato

Towering at 114.5 metres tall and constructed Created by Tomato, a London-

using recycled steel, the ArcelorMittal Orbit is based design collective, Pixel
the UK’s tallest sculpture, designed by artist Wall stretches across the outside
Sir Anish Kapoor and designer Cecil Balmond. of the Podium café.

This sculpture takes the form of a Reflecting on the immersive presence

continuous loop from start to finish, of technology in our daily lives, this
a creative representation of the 2012 interactive wall gives a playful form to
Games and the extraordinary physical and the building block of digital images – the
emotional effort that people undertake pixel. Over 2,000 wooden cubes have been
when they compete. From the top, the The ArcelorMittal Orbit was commissioned handcrafted to produce light and dark
entire Park stretches out in front of you, by the Mayor of London for the London surfaces. Threaded onto steel rods, the pixel
framed by London’s distinctive skyline. 2012 Games and largely funded cubes can be turned to create patterns,
by ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest text or images, transforming the wall into
Find out more: arcelormittalorbit.com. steel company. a giant message board and artist’s canvas.
INTER ALIA 20 21

Grenville Davey

Artist Grenville Davey worked with local people and students from
the Royal College of Art to develop an installation around the idea of
‘making your mark’. Davey chose to represent the hands of the many
different people he worked with by creating abstract ‘fingerprints’ that
disrupt the flat surface of a wall in the 2012 Gardens, as if many hands
of different sizes had pressed their fingers into the wet concrete. Cast
in aluminium bronze, these 61 individual markers can be found along a
wall stretching over 90 metres. ‘Inter Alia’ means ‘between things’.

2012 Gardens, near Carpenter’s Lock

“The work reflects a human
presence in the form of a series
of hand prints, cast in aluminium
bronze at various scales. They
are reminiscent of the finger in
the icing, on an industrial scale.”
Grenville Davey

During the workshops, Davey encouraged

13
participants to think about what it might
mean to leave a trace of your identity on a
public space. Together, the groups explored
casting personal objects in concrete,
messages in bottles and leaving behind
hand and finger prints.

Can you find

the tiniest
fingerprint on
the wall?
 Working drawings
from Gabie’s

freeze frame 22 23
sketchbook

Neville Gabie

In addition to the permanent artworks, a number of temporary

projects were developed during the construction of Queen Elizabeth
Olympic Park. For 16 months during 2010 and 2011, Neville Gabie
was the artist-in-residence of the Park as it was being built – the first
residency of its kind in any Olympic Park to date. During this period,
Gabie created seven works, one of which was Freeze Frame, to tell the
stories of the diverse workforce of over 10,000 people who built the
Park for the London 2012 Games, and explore how they interacted
with their developing surroundings.

The idea for Freeze Frame came when

Gabie saw the first visualisation (right) for
the north of the Park, which immediately
sparked a connection for him to the 1884
painting ‘Bathers at Asnières’ by Georges
Seurat. Gabie planned a photograph that
would recreate Seurat’s painting as a
‘tableau vivant’, using the backdrop of
the Park and people from the teams of
specialist landscape gardeners, security
staff, engineers and designers.

Taking the photograph on an extremely

busy building site required careful
choreography to get everyone in their
right positions for that split-second of a
camera click. The final image (see page 24)
was printed as the centrefold in the Metro
newspaper on 25 January 2012, with over
three million copies distributed across
the UK.

To find out more about the projects

that came out of Gabie’s residency,
visit greatlengths2012.org.uk.
24 25
RUN 26 27

Monica Bonvicini

RUN is a glass and stainless steel artwork made up of three huge

letters by artist Monica Bonvicini, each measuring nine metres high.
Inspired by the many references to running in popular songs, its
meaning is deliberately ambiguous, both serious and satirical.
The artwork represents a bold architectural statement on one of the
highest points of the Park. In daylight, RUN is a vast mirror for you
and your surroundings. By night, the letters glow with lines of internal
LED lighting that seem to extend endlessly into the mirrored interior.

Copper Box Arena

“Born to Run

14
First Run
Run, Run, Run
Run Devil Run
Dry Run.”
Monica Bonvicini

The construction of RUN was complex.

Steel frames for each letter were shipped
from the Czech Republic. Once on the
Park, curved internal mirrors, rows of LED
lighting and a reflective cladding were
installed. This 10-week process called for
very precise production and installation
methods, many of which had never been
attempted before.

As dusk falls, watch as

RUN transforms from
Watch a timelapse video of building RUN at a reflective surface to
QueenElizabethOlympicPark.co.uk/arts-and-culture. glowing sculpture
one whirl 28 29

Martin Richman

Local artist Martin Richman is the creator of two related artworks,

both of which use Park infrastructure. One Whirl is incorporated into
a bridge over the River Lea. Made from recycled glass, the shapes are
inspired by the flow of water in the Park and the energy of the London
2012 Games. Dynamic spirals texture the surface of the bridge directly
contrasting with the practical function of the bridge.

Bridge over the River Lea, leading to Timber Lodge Café

“The graphic vitality of the spirals suggests the
coiling and release of energy which athletes bring,
and echoes the flow of water through the Park.”
Martin Richman

15

For Richman, the spiral is a recurring This photograph (above) taken in

motif across cultures, space and time. 2011 shows Richman’s artwork on the
The revolving loops have a sense of both permanent part of the bridge. Some of
repetition and progression – an appropriate the adjoining bridge will be removed by
symbol for life’s journey of incremental winter 2014.
change and growth. The bold graphic
shapes enhance the familiar structure of See also Underwhirl on page 40
the bridge, drawing attention to this space by Martin Richman.
Cast a shadow
and altering its relationship to us.
across the
dynamic spirals of
One Whirl
 “If you sit down in Cross and Step into the
shelter of Cross
Cave, with things on your mind,
Cross and Cave 30 31
you think: how would you solve
and Cave

Heather and Ivan Morison that problem.”

Child interviewed in
Cross and Cave documentary

Emerging like ruins from the future, Cross and Cave appear as two
elemental shelters that create inviting cave-like spaces within
their simple arrangement of leaning concrete slabs. Cross has two
shelter spaces, formed by intersecting slabs, while Cave provides a
secluded space accessible from one side. The dark colour and angular
construction reflect the industrial history of this area.

Two locations in Tumbling Bay playground

Artists Heather and Ivan Morison are
known for their shelters in public spaces.
Their practice investigates the edges
of cities, landscapes that are halfway
between the urban and the wilderness.
For the artists, caves are portals through
which we can escape, as well as shelters
from the things we can’t escape.

B
Cross and Cave are made from concrete

A
cast in wooden moulds. The timber was
first burnt with a blowtorch to transform 16
the wood and bring out its unique texture
so that the sculptures would bear the
marks of the wood grain directly onto their
surfaces. Local timber from the south of
England and Wales was used, because of
its wider grain. As each artwork measures
over five metres wide they could only be
transported to the Park at night, and were
lowered into place at dawn on an April
morning in 2013.

The Cross and Cave commission was supported by a group of young filmmakers from
east London. You can watch their five-minute documentary about the artworks at
QueenElizabethOlympicPark.co.uk/arts-and-culture.
 Put your head
inside the

Spiegelei Junior 32 33
Spiegelei to see
the Park upside

Jem Finer down

Conceived as both a sculptural work on the outside and a working

observatory on the inside, Spiegelei Junior reflects and inverts the
surrounding landscape using the simple technologies of the mirror
and the lens. Inside, the camera obscura creates an immersive,
360-degree panoramic projection, illuminating the spherical interior
with an upturned living image of the Park. The sphere also echoes
with sounds from the outside world, transformed by the acoustics
of the orbicular space.

Top of slope by the Olympic Rings

Landscape, time, space and the cosmos Spiegelei Junior’s larger relation, Spiegelei,
are central to the practice of artist Jem a spherical camera obscura two metres
Finer, whose work includes Longplayer, a in diameter, has also been on show at the
1,000-year-long musical composition, at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
Trinity Buoy Wharf in Tower Hamlets.

17

Sketch by Jem Finer and Julia King

Spiegelei Junior was first commissioned

as part of a series of temporary artworks
to celebrate the Park’s reopening in
September 2013. Three spheres were
installed for eight months across the
landscape. Owing to their popularity, this
one has remained on the Park and you can
find another at the View Tube.
THE spark catchers 34 35

Lemn Sissay

Local poet Lemn Sissay wrote this poem inspired by the former Bryant
and May match factory and the first strikes in British history that took
place there, led by women’s rights activist Annie Besant. The factory
women, many of whom were younger than 16, protested against their
appalling working conditions which caused them both injury and
illness. In 1888 when the factory’s owners erected a statue of Prime
Minister William Gladstone paid for, in part, by the workers’ wages, the
women took action and refused to go to work.

West side of the River Lea by Knight’s Bridge

Tide twists on the Thames and lifts the Lea to the brim of Bow
Where shoals of sirens work by way of the waves.
At the fire factory the fortress of flames
In tidal shifts East London Lampades made
Millions of matches that lit candles for the well-to-do
And the ne’er-do-well to do alike. Strike ...
From ‘The Spark Catchers’

Sissay’s poem presents the factory women

as ‘spark catchers’ – people affected by a
18
momentary ‘spark’ who allow it to grow
into something larger. The poem plays with
the word ‘strike’, to mean both igniting
a match and going on strike from work.
Sissay also calls attention to the nature of
fire, which, like the factory workers, can be
unpredictable. ‘The Spark Catchers’ is itself
an explosive poem, and the fact that it
clads one of the electricity transformers on
the Park is particularly appropriate.

Both the factory and the statue still exist

today – the factory has been converted
into modern apartments on the edge of the Women at work
Park in Bow, and Gladstone’s statue can be in the Bryant and
found by Bow Church. May match factory
in Bow, c. 1913
 “lfo spectrum is an alternative
representation of the Olympic
lfo spectrum 36 37
Emblem with the five Olympic

Carsten Nicolai Rings transformed into an image

of a low-frequency oscillation
sound wave.”
Carsten Nicolai
Reaching 2.5 metres high, lfo spectrum enlivens a security fence close
to the Lee Valley VeloPark velodrome. The artwork is an alternative
representation of the Olympic Rings. German artist Carsten Nicolai
converted the five rings into an image of a low-frequency oscillation
(LFO) sound wave. Using the colours of the sunset, the wave was
digitally printed onto the fence, with five cycles of intensity that seem
to pulse across the artwork.

Lee Valley VeloPark

19

This was a highly unusual commission – Like other installations by Carsten Nicolai,
the first known example of artwork on a lfo spectrum questions the certainty of
security fence. The most complex issue was what we see. Here, the different shades of
how to print the colours onto the fence so colour alter our perception of the artwork
that it could be robust enough for security depending on where we stand and the time
purposes as well as weather resistant. of day. The varying intensity of the colours Stand back to see
The team tried numerous methods of means that the fence sometimes appears how lfo spectrum
applying colour to the fence before to be very solid, while at other points, it changes in the
discovering a printer in the north of may seem more transparent. light depending
England with facilities large enough to on the time of day
accommodate the vast panels.
ETON MANOR 38 39

Carol Ann Duffy

Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy wrote this poem inspired by the rich
history of the Eton Manor site to the north of the Park, once known as
‘The Wilderness’. Here, at the beginning of the 20th century, a sports
ground was founded by four pioneering men who had attended Eton
School and now wanted to give something back to the community.
The Eton Manor Boys’ Club existed for over 100 years, providing a
place for underprivileged boys and men to take part in sports, and
creating a memorable spirit of camaraderie and community.

Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre

Landscape, time, space and the cosmos
are central to the work of artist Jem
Finer, whose work includes Longplayer, a
thousand year-long musical composition;
and Everywhere All The Time, a drawing
machine animated by signals from the hiss
and static of the early universe.

20
Duffy’s long-term collaborator, Stephen
Raw, designed the poem and worked with
a local sign maker in Hackney who cut the
letters from brass using water jet cutting
techniques, before inlaying them into
treated stainless steel panels.

... This is legacy –

young lives respected, cherished, valued, helped
to sprint, swim, bowl, box, play, excel, belong;
believe community is self in multitude —
the way the past still dedicates to us
Eton Manor
its distant, present light. The same high sky,
boys boxing
same East End moon, above this reclaimed wilderness, in the gym,
where relay boys are raced by running ghosts ... 1949

From ‘Eton Manor’

UNDERWHIRL 40 41

Martin Richman

Local artist Martin Richman is the creator of two related artworks,

Underpass from Temple Mills Lane to Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre, beneath the A12
both of which use Park infrastructure. Underwhirl extends the length
of an underpass beneath the busy A12 road, connecting the Park with
Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre. Large, vibrant swirls, made from
glass beads set into coloured plaster, transform what could have been
a dark, uninteresting passageway into a bright, vibrant space. As you
move through, the spirals seem to alter your sense of perspective
through the patterns that suggest the coiling and release of energy –
a suitable visual metaphor for a developing Park and the place that
hosted the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012.

Richman’s practice explores our

perceptions of the spaces we inhabit, and
how light can change these. For him, the
city is alive with accidental flourishes that
sparkle or alarm, which are sometimes like
jewels and at other times even irritating.
Each swirl in Underwhirl is composed of
hundreds of tiny glass beads, painstakingly
installed over a vast scale, that glitter and
shift as you walk past.

“I can get just as excited about

an ugly tower block as a really
exquisite space. Often it’s the
small everyday things that are
more interesting to me.”
Martin Richman
21

See also One Whirl on page 28

by Martin Richman.

Run your hands

across the
coloured glass
beads to feel
the textures
BICYCLING FOR LADIES 42 43

John Burnside

Poet John Burnside was inspired by the suffragette and cyclist Sylvia
Pankhurst and the women of Bow who campaigned for women’s rights
at the turn of the 20th century. The poem looks back to the radical
history of this part of east London, remembering women cyclists as
emblems of a changing world.

... Between the morning and the evening wash

Next to the BMX tracks in Lee Valley VeloPark

they dream of riding out, like Pankhurst girls,
in Rational Dress, on shiny new machines,
to Waltham Abbey, Thornwood, Magdalen Lever …
Landscape, time, space and the cosmos
From ‘Bicycling for Ladies’ are central to the work of artist Jem
Finer, whose work includes Longplayer, a
thousand year-long musical composition;
and Everywhere All The Time, a drawing
The first part of the poem looks longingly
machine animated by signals from the hiss
from the perspective of women who
and static of the early universe.
dreamed of “riding out” to revel in the
“solitude of some far crossroads”. Burnside
then dreams of a ghostly Sylvia Pankhurst
revived from history, followed by hordes
of women cyclists. The poem ends with a Spiegelei Junior’s larger relation, Spiegelei,
haunting reminder of how the acts of the a spherical camera obscura two metres in
past can be easily forgotten as the modern diameter, has also been on show at the
22 Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
world cycles away.

Spiegelei Junior was first commissioned

Burnside was inspired by historical
as part of a series of temporary artworks
sources, drawing on a well-known women’s
curated by Parabola to celebrate the Park’s
liberation pamphlet entitled ‘Bicycling for
opening. Three spheres were installed
Ladies’, as well as other material from the
across the landscape from September 2013
Sylvia Pankhurst archives. The poem also
to April 2013. Owing to their popularity,
includes the words of the women who
this one has remained on the Park and you
worked with Pankhurst in east London,
can find another at View Tube.
such as Nellie Cressall.

Women cyclists
Tyre marks and a full-scale bicycle have were emblems of
been etched into the wooden structure, a changing world
alongside the poem at the turn of the
20th century
 44 45 “You are right here, right now.”
Jeppe Hein

Tennyson’s words are set into an

Ulysses Place, East Village

Stratford Hill, East Village

undulating wall in East Village,
opposite Chobham Academy.
This open space is now called
Ulysses Place after the poem

ulysSes mirror Labyrinth

Alfred, Lord Tennyson Jeppe Hein
23

24
Chosen by the public for its power and universal ... To strive, to Taking the Olympic Rings as inspiration, Mirror
appeal, ‘Ulysses’, published in 1842, was the seek, to find Labyrinth, by artist Jeppe Hein, is formed of
winning poem in a national campaign launched by and not to multiple mirrored steel lamellae (thin plate-like
BBC Radio 4 before the London 2012 Games. yield ... structures) arranged in concentric circles with
The aim was to find an inspirational text relevant From ‘Ulysses’ openings on opposite sides that encourage you to
to both the athletes and future residents to come. step inside this maze.

Tennyson’s poem describes a restless in the former Athletes’ Village as a The many reflections that play out across Hein has created various mazes and
hero, Ulysses, an ancient Greek explorer powerful example of how language can the multifaceted surfaces produce a labyrinths around the world, each unique
who after wandering the world is now encourage and inspire. Ulysses is now fragmented view of the space that can feel to its own location. He is also known for
only sustained by the idea of living life located directly outside a school, both disorientating and playful. his Appearing Rooms water installation at
to the full, despite age or obstacle. The a fitting location for the legacy of the Southbank Centre each summer.
last verse of the poem was selected by a such an inspirational poem.
high-profile literary panel to be installed
 46 47

The Greenway
Angel Lane Bridge, opposite the Theatre Royal Stratford East

26
CLOUDS BRIDGE FANTASTICOLOGY
Oscar Bauer and Nazareno Crea Klassnik Corporation,
Riitta Ikonen, We Made That

South of the ArcellorMittal Orbit

Inspired by the vast expanses
of sky that can be seen over
25

The Greenway is a path stretching

the Park, design students Oscar
from Hackney Wick to Beckton
Bauer and Nazareno Crea created
following the route of London’s
an artwork that aimed to give the
Northern Outfall Sewer, designed
locals back their skyline, during a
by Joseph Bazalgette in 1858.
period of intense construction.
Distinctive pillars mark three points along
A grid of almost 30,000 squares reflects A complicated laser cut stencil was used to the path along with patterned concrete
8

the geometry of the East Village residential give a pixellated effect and different paints floor surfaces and sculptural barrier blocks.
blocks behind. From a distance, the were tested on the concrete. Bauer and These works embrace the unusual history The same creative team used wildflower
intricate grid reveals cloud patterns Crea developed the winning design as part of this path by using motifs from manhole meadows to recreate the footprints of old
painted against an optimistic blue sky. of a competition organised with the Royal covers on the pillars, and incorporating bits industrial buildings, from large chimney
College of Art and supported by artist of broken porcelain toilets and sinks found stacks to yards and warehouses, in a floral
Richard Wentworth. on the Park before its construction. celebration of the area’s history.
 4

1 History Trees 12 FAST, FASTER, FASTEST 22 BICYCLING FOR LADIES

Ackroyd and Harvey p2 Jason Bruges Studio p13 John Burnside p42

7 THE FUN PALACE 17 Spiegelei Junior

Caroline Bird p14 Jem Finer p32

2 STELES 13 INTER ALIA 23 ulysSes

Keith Wilson p4 Grenville Davey p20 Alfred, Lord Tennyson p44

8 WILDFLOWER MEADOWS 18 THE spark catchers

Klassnik Corporation, Lemn Sissay p34
Riitta Ikonen,
We Made That p47
3 WILD SWIMMER 14 RUN 24 mirror Labyrinth
Jo Shapcott p6 Monica Bovincini p26 Jeppe Hein p45

19 lfo spectrum
Carsten Nicolai p36
9 ARCELORMITTAL ORBIT
Sir Anish Kapoor,
4 A CARPENTER’S CURVE Cecil Balmond p18 15 one whirl 25 CLOUDS BRIDGE
Martin Richman p28 Oscar Bauer and
B BRICK FIELDS Nazareno Crea p46
Clare Woods p8
20 ETON MANOR
Carol Ann Duffy p38

10 pixel wall
Tomato 16 A Cross and Cave
p19
Heather and 26 FANTASTICOLOGY
5 OPEN FOLDS B Ivan Morison p30 Klassnik Corporation,
DJ Simpson p10 Riitta Ikonen,
We Made That p47
21 UNDERWHIRL
Martin Richman p40

11 FANTASTIC FACTOLOGY
Klassnik Corporation,
Riitta Ikonen,
6 STREAMLINE We Made That p16 INDEX
Jason Bruges Studio p12

L ee V alley
H ockey and N
Tenni s C en t re
21
1

History Trees 20
Lime W E
15 mins 22

The full trail will take about 2 hours

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view tube 1 History Trees

Silver Lime
These permanent artworks are just part 8
of our arts and culture programme in and
around the Park. Visit our website for details
of new temporary art installations, pop-up
events, workshops, activities and festivals
all year round.

All artworks in this book were commissioned by the Olympic

Delivery Authority as the Park was being built for the
London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and by the
London Legacy Development Corporation as the Park was
transformed post-Games into how you see it today.

Over 150 individuals and organisations were involved

in these projects and every one of them was essential to
making them happen. From the artists’ visions, to the skill
and dedication of the engineers and fabricators, as well
as tenacious project managers and visionary leaders – all
should be thanked for their part in this story.

This Art in the Park programme has helped to raise the

bar of how ambitious and specific artworks can bring a
landscape to life and leave a lasting legacy.

QueenElizabethOlympicPark.co.uk

Photography credits

Thierry Bal, pp. 1, 3, 5, 8, 9, 11, 13, 19, 30 (L), 31, 32 (L),

33, 44. Courtesy of Ackroyd and Harvey, p. 2 (L). Courtesy
of Lucy Harrison, p. 2 (R). Courtesy of Keith Wilson, p. 4.
Courtesy of Clare Woods, p. 8 (bottom). Courtesy of DJ
Simpson, p. 10 (bottom). Adriana Marques, pp. 12 (top), 26
(top), 40. Jason Bruges, p. 12 (bottom). Neville Gabie, pp. 6,
22-25. Nigel Dunnett, p. 47 (bottom). Chris Dorley-Brown,
p. 7. Courtesy of Theatre Royal Stratford East Archives,
p.15. Carmen Valino, p.14, 17, 20 (top), 29, 30 (R). Courtesy
of Jem Finer, 32 (R). Courtesy of We Made That, p. 16.
Olympic Development Authority, pp. 10 (top), 18 (bottom),
20 (bottom), 21, 26 (bottom), 27, 28, 34, 36, 37, 38, 41, 42,
45, 46, 47 (top). Courtesy of Tobaks- & Tändsticksmuseum,
p.35. Courtesy of Bishopsgate Institute, p.39. Courtesy of the
Chambers family, p. 43. LLDC, p. 18 (top)