Stonehenge is known across the world as an icon of Britishness and so a great symbol to represent these isles abroad. But much of the talk surrounding the ancient stone circle can be a bit po-faced – all a bit stiff upper lip and all.
So the artist Jeremy Deller set about reintroducing some fun back into those dusty old rocks. His idea? Turn it into a bouncy castle. Now everyone loves a bouncy castle. Kids will start jumping on auto pilot whilst adults need a bit of coaxing but soon they too will be bouncing and tumbling away especially on a inflatable Stonehenge.
The inflatable Stonehenge known as ‘Sacrilege’ will be take its place amongst other blown up art as part of Hong Kong M+: Inflation. And I’m sure after a few moments hesitation Hong Kongers and international visitors alike will be bouncing around the ancient stones to their heart’s content. Deller’s artwork was commissioned as part of the London 2012 celebrations and toured the UK last year much to the delight of city dwellers up and down the land.
Sacrilege will be just one amongst five giant inflatable sculptures by local Hong Kong and international artists showing at the festival. These include two new commissions created especially for the exhibition by Hong Kong based artist Tam Wai Ping and Chinese artist Cao Fei and a piece by the American artist Paul McCarthy. The six works will be accompanied by a performance piece by Tomás Saraceno (Argentina) which will be staged on 4 and 25 May and 8 June 2013. The arts festival will be biggest ever staged in Hong Kong and invites the public to engage, participate and have some fun and hopes to be far removed from the dusty atmosphere of the traditional museum.
Alongside the five other works, Sacrilege will take advantage of the promenade on West Kowloon, the future site of the West Kowloon Cultural District, with an iconic view out over Victoria Harbour. The installation, with inflatable moss covered slabs at over 7m high, and a 35m wide fake green grass base will offer a stark contrast to Hong Kong’s heavily urbanized environment. It’s placement on the site of The Park, creates a fantasy landscape within the city upon the evolving site of West Kowloon. The part of the site will eventually be transformed into a park for the people of Hong Kong and provide green open space and gardens, contributing parkland to the heavily built up cityscape for residents to enjoy.
