Alex Chinneck

A bullet from a shooting star and straight jacket star jumps by Alex Chinneck.

Renowned for his spectacular and surreal public artworks, Alex Chinneck will create a dramatic upturned electricity pylon, leaning at a precarious angle at Greenwich Peninsula. A Bullet From A Shooting Star, at 35m high, references the industrial history of the site and will comprise 450 pieces of steel with 900 engineered connection points. Weighing 15 tonnes, it will be secured with 19m-deep piles set in concrete and illuminated at night, to be seen from the Emirates Air Line cable car, Canary Wharf and planes fl ying to and from City Airport.

A Bullet From A Shooting Star. Photo: Courtesy London Design Festival

Over at NOW Gallery, also in Greenwich, Straight Jacket Star Jumps will coil a 20m-long pylon into a tight, 7m-high exhibition space.

Straight Jacket Star Jumps. Photo: Courtesy London Design Festival

'Every project I produce is contextually sensitive and so each installation responds to the environment that supports, surrounds and includes it,' says Chinneck. 'This philosophy distinguishes the sculptural decisions behind the two installations. In a similar fashion to my previous projects, which have seen bricks bend, stone hover and asphalt curl, the effortlessly rolling metal transcends its material nature by assuming an apparent and pleasing flexibility.'