Upon arriving at the launch of Lucy and Jorge Orta’s Cloud: Meteoros, we
were met with friendly faces and tall glasses of bubbles. There was a
wonderful social atmosphere in the area just in front of the St Pancreas
Grand Champagne Bar, where family of the Orta’s and fellow reviews met.
Running the show was the team from Blue Rubicon, who made it a
wonderful experience from start to finish.
The piece itself went up overnight, so some commuters from France had
already had the honour of seeing it hang in the arch above the Grand
Terrace. HS1 Ltd commissioned the piece after having held a competition
to decide what would go in the space left by the Olympic rings. The
couple who won looked to the space as the kick-off point for the the
piece’s inspiration. At the time of hearing that they could be involved
Lucy and Jorge Orta were working on something that involved clouds,
there were various moulds and shape experiments of clouds around the
studio and the thought of a meeting place on a cloud came. It was
wonderful to speak to Lucy, as she is such a down to earth woman. The
piece is very near to them, and the models used for the piece are all
really people two of which happen to be their children.
Upon my first glimpse of the art, I thought it looked small in the
expanse of the arch, but coming in at a 15mx3mx3m it is not a miniscule
figurine in any way. It was a mildly sunny day, but there where gorgeous
white puffy clouds against the blue sky. These could be seen through
the glass arch opposite the Meteoros like it was a reflection of the sky
outside. Meteoros does draw the eye up, and this was the intention of
the installation to help travellers behold the beautiful architecture of
the station. They wanted Meteoros to do what ceiling frescoes did many
centuries ago, something beautiful to draw our attention as we head on
our way.
Ceiling Frescoes
Travelling in from the Orta’s studio in Les Moulins, Paris regularly,
as she is a Professor here in London, Lucy will be beholding their art
when she pops over on the Eurostar. I think it is poetic that she is a
commuter and now her piece is there to be shared with millions of others
on the same journey as her. Pop down to the St Pancreas station to
catch a glance of the Meteoros.
