Green space for all

Wivenhoe Park is an inspiring place — and not just for its nature.

Dotted throughout, you will find arresting artworks collected and commissioned by the University over decades.

These sculptures at once reflect and contrast their surroundings in ways that may surprise anyone who takes the time to explore this green gallery.

Standing Stone (pictured) is based on the geometry of movement. As you walk around its rotating triangular form, one side catches the light while another is forced into shadow. The resulting spiral implies a continuous motion which originates below the level of the ground and continues into the air, suggestive of the organic forces which have bent and twisted the forms of nearby oak trees over the course of time.

Standing Stone was commissioned by the University in 1987. Both students and staff took part in discussions with John Maine, who went on to make significant alterations to the location and form of the sculpture seen today.

Vertical, angular blades of galvanised steel cluster together in a raised bed, echoing the forms of a natural spinney — a small wood or thicket. Through his sculptures, Robert Scott Simon attempts to extract the essence of natural forms and freeze them in time. He encourages us to look again at nature by creating a space in which we can contemplate a particular moment in the ever-changing cycle of growth, inevitable decay, and growth again.

Spinney was kindly left to the University in a will.

This monumental wooden sculpture by Brazilian artist Elisa Bracher comprises two whole tree trunks of a wood known in Portuguese as ‘angelim’. Bracher saws the bark off the trees to create faceted columns, which she then joins with dovetails and large metal bolts. Evidence of the artist’s hand is minimal, however, and these immense sculptures have the appearance of industrial forms rather than crafted ones. Different from every angle, the viewer is encouraged to move around this sculpture in order to appreciate it in its entirety.

This work was donated to the University by Elisa Bracher and São Paulo’s Galeria Marília Razuk in 2000.

Fita decrescente no espaço translates from Portuguese as ‘ribbon descending from space’ and is one of a number of fitas, or ribbons, that Brazilian sculptor Franz Weissmann made in the 1990s. In all of these sculptures, the ribbon is a flat, straight piece of iron that has been twisted as though it were a strip of paper or cloth until it almost curves. As a ‘constructivist’ sculpture, made from industrial materials, Fita decrescente no espaço bridges the gap between the everyday and art. The delicate appearance of this sculpture, however, belies the fact that it weighs 650 kilogrammes.

Weissmann donated this piece to Essex in 1996.

Amílcar de Castro, who died in 2002, was another of Brazil’s foremost sculptors. In 1959, he signed the Neoconcrete Manifesto with Franz Weissmann and other artists who believed in creating geometric, abstract art that, nevertheless, was not completely lacking in human warmth. This iron sculpture takes a semi-pyramidal form, with a cut-out triangular section inclined against a square frame. Unlike Amílcar’s earlier iron sculptures that were welded, this example comprises a piece of metal that has been cut and folded and is also extremely heavy, weighing 2.3 tonnes.

This work was donated by the artist in 1996.

While in South Korea working on a sculpture for the Seoul Olympics in 1988, Nigel Hall visited the old Changdeokgung Palace and discovered a large ornamental pool. This pool, and all its reflections, made a lasting impression on the artist and led him to create a series of sculptures, of which Views of the Interior is the largest. Now, views of the park, the towers, and people walking by are all contained for a moment as you walk in and around this compelling sculpture.

This sculpture was donated to the University by BP.