“The Angel of the South” - A Proposed Public Art Horse Sculpture in Kent

“The Angel of the South” is a proposed public art sculpture of a horse to be built at Ebbsfleet in north Kent, England, to be ready in time for the 2012 London Olympics. A figure of a white thoroughbred horse would be depicted standing on its four hooves. At 33 times life-size, it would stand at about 50m, as tall as “Nelson’s Column” and over double the height of the “Angel of the North” sculpture by Antony Gormley in Gateshead.

As Part of the Ebbsfleet Landmark Project, the idea of a white horse came from the Turner Prize winning artist Mark Wallinger. It was accepted on 10 February 2009 over competing designs presented by artists including Richard Deacon and Daniel Buren. “The Angel of the South” was originally planned to be a counterpart of Gormley’s “Angel of the North.” It was also required to be observable from at least 20 miles away and be twice the width and height of the Angel of the North. The title, “Angel of the South”, would be appropriate, as Ebbsfleet is the southern gateway to London. The site of the sculpture is at Springhead Park, Swanscombe, close to the Ebbsfleet International Eurostar rail station. “The Angel of the South” would represent north Kent’s regeneration, as well as London’s growth towards the east.

“The Invicta,” the motto of Kent, is a prancing horse, and though a proposal of a prancing horse submitted by the Kent County Council was rejected, Wallinger’s horse will remind observers of Kent’s and England’s association with the white horse. Incidentally, the model of the proposed white horse sculpture from Wallinger was modeled on the artist’s own racehorse, Riviera Red. This concept from the artistic mind of Mark Wallinger would be a striking and representative masterpiece of England.

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The Singing Ringing Tree: A Futuristic Art Sculpture

Appearing like an artist’s imaginative rendering on the blank canvas of nature, the “Singing Ringing Tree” is a futuristic art sculpture in England. Set in the Pennine mountain range in Lancashire, overlooking Burnley, the project is one of four sculptures that are part of the Panopticons project of the East Lancashire Environmental Arts Network (ELEAN), and funded by organisations including the Northwest Regional Development Agency and the Lancashire Economic Partnership.

Not only do the steel pipes that make up the sculpture look futuristic and like the result of a berserk brush on an artists’ canvas, they also produce sound in the wind. The sculpture is therefore named after the East German children’s film of 1957, “The Singing Ringing Tree.” The 3m tall sculpture made from galvanised steel is designed by the London-based firm Tonkin Liu’s architects Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu with assistance from Jane Wernick Associates. The sound produced covers many octaves and is a penetrating and mildly discordant choral noise. The variation in the noise is a result of the interaction of the wind with the structure.

Designing a musical sculpture posed quite a few challenges as it was the first of its kind attempted by Tonkin Liu. The site for which Tonkin Liu submitted the proposal offers a panoramic view and, in extreme cases, experiences winds blowing at speeds reaching 160km/hr. This sparked in the designers a desire to create something striking and musical. Costing £60,000 to build, the “Singing Ringing Tree” was awarded the National Award of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 2007. This futuristic art sculpture, looking fresh out the blank canvas of an artist’s imagination, is a perfect symbol of Lancashire’s renaissance, as the Panopticons project was intended to be.