The Line Sculpture Trail, 4th August

With the galleries on summer holiday, I decided to check out The Line sculpture trail. On the web guide it appears as a stepped graphic, a bit like a ladder, incorporating the letters THE LINE into its design. Its inexorable progress north along The Meridian is augmented midway by a couple of stops on the DLR. This avoids the mouth of the River Lee with its tight bows through industrial estates close to the Thames.

An Oyster card is useful. A first batch of sculptures is accompanied by a surprisingly exciting ride across the Thames on the Emirates cable car. From here I am directed to the DLR, but with my own requirement to do a gallery run, I make my way by foot through the industrial estates rejoining The Line where the Lee has become navigable.

At this stretch of the river one arrives at a sculpture by Damien Hirst, a painted bronze about the size and shape of a camper van. Small blue and red circles are visible in pairs on its surface and in slight relief. They represent blood vessels in cross section. Other vessels are apparent too and in colours that somehow describe their function; sweat glands, hairs and shunts that cool the skin all with the clarity of a medical text book illustration.

The bronze mass mimics a few cubic millimetres of skin, yet has a lusciousness that one might imagine seeing were a serving to be made of a large chunk of trifle after an already hearty meal! The layers are stepped on the upper surface and are articulated in bright colours straying from the anatomical rigour bestowed upon the underlying bronze form with its many fine details. Black hairs sit on top, and here the analogy with trifle must end, curved as though caught by a delicate breeze drawn off the surface of the nearby river. Having taken the photos I leave in search of a DNA spiral made of shopping trolleys.

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Emirates Air Line which forms a vital link crossing the Thames for The Line sculpture trail.

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Opposite larger than life bronze contemporary figure with its own smart phone by Thomas J Price on The Line sculpture trail.

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Carsten Holler of Gagosian joins his spiral tube slide to the spiral tower of Anish Kapoor of Lisson Gallery.

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Antony Gormley of White Cube showing Quantum Cloud on The Line sculpture trail.

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Richard Wilson RA produced Slice of Reality, the title being visible on a life ring on board. The Line sculpture trail.

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Sterling Ruby of Spruth and Magers and Gagosian produced this angular canon-like form. He paid particular attention to the spray paint whose code is displayed in welded lettering on the base. The Line sculpture trail.

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Damien Hirst of White Cube on The Line sculpture trail. The painted bronze sculpture imitates a few cubic millimetres of skin.

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Gary Hume of David Zwirner gallery with brass leg-like forms on The Line sculpture trail.

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Abigail Fallis on The Line sculpture trail. Shopping trolleys imitate structural molecules in a DNA spiral. The poppies were growing round the concrete base.