Christo Javacheff (1935) knows a thing or two about disproportionate artwork. In collab with his wife and creative partner Jeanne-Claude (1935-2009), the New York City-based artist has launched a series of headline making projects around the planet. The duo first conceived The Mastaba in 1977, and the massive artwork was to emerge in the desert near Abu Dhabi. The stacked barrels never emerged there, but now, over four decades later, they see the light of day amidst the lush greens of Hyde Park in London. Called The London Mastaba, the artwork comprises of 7,506 horizontally stacked barrels on a floating platform in The Serpentine lake. Measuring 20 metres (65.5 ft.) x 30 metres (90 ft.) x 40 metres (130 ft.), the gallon barrels have been specifically fabricated and painted for this sculpture. The sides of the barrels, visible on the top and on the two slanted walls of the sculpture, are painted red and white. The ends of the barrels, visible on the two vertical walls, are different hues of red, blue, and mauve. The sculpture’s floating platform is made of high-density polyethylene cubes anchored to the lakebed with weighted anchors (on display through Sep 23). The display of The London Mastaba coincides with an exhibition of Christo and Jeanne-Claude‘s iconic work at the nearby Serpentine Galleries.
The Mastaba
The Serpentine, Hyde Park (Belgravia)
London W2
Publishers Note
Just to be clear – superfuture® is a design blog and not a political commentator. No surprise there. The scope of our content has always been global and borderless, however that can often mean covering projects in countries where we will not agree with the politics or actions of those countries. In a world that’s as screwed up as ever right now, the focus of our support is to those designers, architects and other creatives who aim to make the world a more liveable one – as opposed to people that try their hardest to destroy it. So if a project hits our desk and we like it based on its design credentials, we may choose to publish regardless of its location or creators nationality. superfuture® has always been inclusive and hopes for all current wars, aggression, violence, hate and extremism to end.
