This elegant combination of triangles in steel mesh, suspended from a tapering tubular arc, stands at the end of Perth Street and is called ‘Swoop’.
The work strongly suggests a mast and sails, or bow and string. In either case, it is the tension between contending forces and potential release which lends the piece apparent dynamism and excitement.
It was specifically designed for this site and its surrounds by sculptor Rob Olins in 2003. To locals buffetted by the winds bouncing off the building next door, the sails analogy seems particularly apt. Olins apparently enjoyed the work’s transparency, and this theme reflected the professed ethic of financial giant Standard Life which had commissioned it.
A similar sculpture, on a horizontal plane, is displayed within the building and is called ‘Sweep’.
Architecture, engineering, and construction processes are major influences on [his] practice along with the subconscious effect that volumes, forms and colour have on our perceptions of the world. He is particularly interested in the contribution artworks have to the built environment and how to successfully combine them.
Another Standard Life commission – Gerald Laing’s 1991 ‘Axis Mundi or The Apotheosis of the Seven Wise Virgins’ – was discussed in Issue 167.
