Sunday 6 April 2014

Finsbury Avenue Square, Broadgate EC2

This group of despondent commuters heading for home in the rain after a hard day in the office was made by American artist George Segal in 1989.
The construction was highly unusual. Segal got his models to stand very still as he encased them with plaster bandages and wire mesh. He then cut them out, no doubt to their intense relief, and rejoined the halves to form a mould from which the bronze figures were cast.
The result is a curiously defocused finish that anonymises the figures while recording their very individual postures and gaits.
There are quite a few versions of Rush Hour in galleries and sculpture parks mainly in the US, but nowhere is it more appropriately placed than on the way to Liverpool Street Station.

No comments: