London Art@Site www.artatsite.com Ron Arad Big Blue
Artist:

Ron Arad

Title:

Big Blue

Year:
2000
Adress:
Canada Square Park
Website:
Aspects of this artwork
Shape
Clouds and some surrounding offices reflect on a huge disk. This seems to be smoothly carried and collected in the bowl. If the artwork would stand in a gorgeous area, the reflection would be beautyful and the merging by the bowl make it even richer.
Material
The scale of the bowl and the shiny blue material evokes a feeling of aesthetic pleasure. In the evening, the scale is enlightened so the environment is not reflected anymore. In the evening the artwork stands alone and this gives me a somewhat alienated feeling.
Location
The artwork stands on a green strip between offices. Employees and visitors of the surrounding buildings sometimes scroll in the area.
Impact
The large size of the artwork matches the scale of the surrounding buildings. Due to the artwork a sense of beauty is added to a utilitarian space.
Meaning
The artwork stands alone in the office park. The artwork’s feature is to decorate an utilitarian environment. In another area, the statue may have a greater role and significance.
By Theo, www.artatsite.com

Compared with other artworks
The artwork Untitled by Tomas Saraceno (London, picture 1, more information) is located in a park. The nature (trees, clouds) is reflected by the shiny surface. Due to the rectangular shapes of the artwork, it seems, that portions of the surroundings are cut away, are manipulated.

Sky Mirror (New York, picture 2, more information) is giving the nature back to the people. Anish Kapoor says something like:"Look around you, see the beauty of the sky. Take another point of view, see the surroundings from a different side, upside down.". The artwork distorts only a little, namely because of the fisheye.

The artwork Never Again Auschwitz by Jan Wolkers (Amsterdam, picture 3, more information) the sunlight is reflected by broken glass. The glass plates are reminiscent of gravestones. The artwork reflects on one of the most difficult issues in European history. Jan Wolkers says: 'After Auschwitz, the view on the sky is violated'.

This sympathetic artwork Lensbomen (Glasses Trees) by Thomas Puckey (Amsterdam, picture 4, more information) is a tree containing discs of glass. The artwork would have extra dynamics when transparent glasses where used so the area and sky was magnified or deformed.
By Theo, www.artatsite.com

www. canarywharf.com:
The Big Blue functions both as a remarkable visual event within Canada Square Park and as illumination for the shopping mall below. A huge, asymmetric glass fibre object, it rests on a ring of structural glazing that makes it appear to float above the ground. Ron Arad is one of Britain’s most inventive designers, whose work crosses boundaries between art, design and architecture. He has created large-scale interiors such as the foyer of Tel Aviv Opera House, and has designed chandeliers for the Swarovski crystal company and a perfume bottle for fashion designer Kenzo.

www.gurit.com:
Big Blue is a Ron Arad designed architectural sculpture which is installed in Canary Wharf. The sculpture is a 13.5m diameter truncated ellipsoid, which sits over a skylight to an underground shopping mall, and is supported on an eight metre diameter glass wall. Although the sculpture looks simple, it contains a fairly complex internal structure, which was designed to spread the six tonne mass and the high wind loads which can be developed around the support points to avoid overloading the glazing.
The lamination was carried out using a high Tg hardener to avoid any print through on the gloss surface finish, as the dark blue colour of the sculpture results in high surface temperatures when exposed to the sun. The sculpture was manufactured on the Isle of Wight, and then shipped by barge to London, where it was then lifted and moved into position.

www.ronaradweb.squarespace.com:
Canada Square Park is the uppermost level of a car parking and shopping centre at the heart of the financial district of Canary Wharf. This large circular sculpture, fabricated using advanced boat building techniques rests on a ring of structural glazing at the centre of the park and acts as a visual link between the ground level park and the shopping centre below. Canada Square Park is the uppermost level of a car parking and shoppingcentre at the heart of the financial district of Canary Wharf. This largecircular sculpture, fabricated using advanced boat building techniquesrests on a ring of structural glazing at the centre of the park and acts as avisual link between the ground level park and the shopping centre below.