It is the highest sculpture in the United Kingdom but it is also an attraction that thrills visitor’s of all ages. It is the ArcelorMittal Orbit, the spectacular tunnel slide designed by artists Anish Kapoor and Carsten Höller for the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Surrounded by a flame-red trellis, a 114.5 metre spiral tower offers breathtaking views of London from two terraces suspended 76 and 80 metres off the ground respectively. For the brave-at-heart, the real adventure starts here - flying down the highest and longest slide in the world at 24 kilometres an hour! But the surprises aren’t finished yet - through concave lens placed on the panoramic platform, you can look at the world upside-down while the descent of the spiral staircase offers some unexpected sonic experiences. Whoever wants to learn more about this curious work of art will find all the information right there in a specially dedicated area. Created for the London Olympic Games in 2012, the ArcelorMittal Orbit is a behemoth made from recycled steel and inspired by the double helix of DNA, held together by 600 hundred star knots and thirty-five-thousand bolts. Synonymous with innovative design and playful invention, it has transformed the landscape of East London, showing the numerous faces of a versatile and resistant material - from the red trellises to the polished-steel mirrors, from the spiral staircases to the Corten steel that forms the upper canopy.
For the first time in the UK, the National Gallery hosts a major exhibition on Francisco de Zurbarán, Master of 17th-century Spanish painting. Nearly fifty works trace his mystical and dramatic career. Still lifes by his son Juan are also on display, alongside new curatorial insights.
The exhibition retraces a decade of Cai Guo-Qiang’s practice, with works created using explosives and coloured powders. An exploration of painting as process, balancing abstraction, nature and vital energy.
Ichiko Aoba brings her ethereal music to London’s Royal Albert Hall. With her new album Luminescent Creatures, the Japanese singer-songwriter turns the stage into a dreamlike landscape where silences and melodies unfold as inner journeys.
Wayne Thiebaud: The Sweet Melancholy of Everyday Life
The Courtauld Gallery presents the first major UK exhibition of Wayne Thiebaud. Through paintings and prints from the 1960s, ice creams, cakes and pinball machines become an epic yet melancholic portrait of American consumer culture.
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