01/09/09 Gordon Young installs sculpture on Grand Union Canal

Gordon Young has installed a sculpture on the Grand Union Canal. The work is sited in the private terrace of the Hawkins Brown designed residential development on Wharf Road in Islington.

Working with a team of assistants over two days, Gordon Young has now installed his sculpture on the Grand Union Canal. The work is sited in the private terrace of the Hawkins Brown designed residential development on Wharf Road in Islington, but can be viewed by the public from the north bank of the canal.

Following a brief prepared by Plan Projects to produce a work that established a strong relationship with its context, the artist drew inspiration from the iconography and art work traditionally found on narrow boats. Young's intention was to 'add a human touch and highlight the contrast with the formal modern architecture next to the folkiness of the canal barges.'

The tone of the work is at once humorous as well as ironic; taking as his subject matter ‘the most traditional of canal art, that of barges, roses and castles’ he has produced a work that celebrates a culture, but also takes wry look at the sense of nostalgia and escapism that pervades the world of the canals, a place some have described as a ‘parallel universe,’ full personalities and eccentrics who are as colourful as the barges they inhabit. In this way, Young has created a very real link between the development and the culture that surrounds it and an important new landmark for people using the tow path.