Stephan Balkenhol: Head of a Man / Figure on a Buoy
20 February - 19 April 1992
The River Thames, London
Photograph Lisa Harty
In February 1992, German sculptor Stephan Balkenhol unveiled an ambitious public project in and by the River Thames. A monumental head was placed on one obsolete bridge pillar by Blackfriars Bridge, and downstream a smaller, life-sized figure was attached to a buoy. Like all Balkenhol's sculpture, they were carved in wood, and coloured. Whilst the head on the bridge pillar was static and hieratic, the figure in the river was in constant motion, vulnerable and uprooted. Balkenhol's sculptures embody a contemporary urban condition, the estrangement of the individual within the urban crowd.
Head of a Man / Figure on a Buoy and two works by Juan Muñoz, Untitled (Monument) and Pieces for Radio (with Gavin Bryars), were commissioned by Artangel in association with the Southbank Centre as part of the exhibition Doubletake: Collective Memory and Current Art at the Hayward Gallery, 20 February - 19 April 1992.
This project was supported by Arts Council England, Special Angels and The Company of Angels.
