2026
Long-listed Public Art Proposal for 'Artangel' / UK / 2026
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Summary Proposal:
‘Some Time Waiting’ (place for an eventual bird) is an intervention and public sculpture in an urban space; an 8.5cm x 5mm Ø perch installed perpendicular to an exterior wall behind a diner or gas station, between an airport and a landmark. Slightly out of reach. Strong enough to take the weight of a small bird. A bird that might never alight.
Extended Proposal:
Outside on a wall, behind a diner or a gas station where there are no chairs or a place for people to congregate and maybe next to some bins, is a small rod made from Carrara marble, sourced and made in the marble quarries of Carrara, Italy, measuring 8.5cm x 5mm Ø; an unassuming perch, big enough for a small bird, nothing more. Installed perpendicular to the wall and at a height that is slightly out of reach it provides a vantage point. It will remain there. Waiting. We encounter it also and in turn we wait. For some time.
‘Some Time Waiting’(place for an eventual bird) is deceptive in its simplicity; an artwork that resists the urge to shout and be heard, a reaction to over inflated brashness and narrative structures. Its ‘lightness’ acts as a resistance. It is a public sculpture; a minimal physical intervention with great spatial impact.
It is an abstraction. Apolitical. Quiet. It occupies physical space. It is installed somewhere between an airport and a landmark (LAX Los Angeles to the Hollywood hills) where people pause in their movement. A place to be and think and wait and move. A slightly absurd but stoic time to exist.
‘Some Time Waiting’ will be accompanied by a publication, co-published by The Silent Academy. This will act as an accompaniment to the physical artwork and its context, utilising the strategies applied by The Silent Academy’s ‘Field Guides, books released on the 21st of each month that employ psychedelic minimalism to disrupt habitual thinking.
