events                                                                                                                                                                                                     return

EVENTS
Business Centre at Berkeley Square House

From Baker Street to Berkeley Square
E.S.Jones

In association with Hay Hill Gallery and cooperation with ARTful, works by Eleanor Cardozo and Ian Edwards were exhibited at the Berkeley Square Business Centre. Three specially selected sculptures occupied the windows and entrance hall from January 2014 until the end of June 2014.

Right in the heart of Mayfair, Berkeley Square is one of the West End’s best known business locations, forming the central point between Grosvenor Street (North), Piccadilly (South), Regent Street (East) and Park Lane (West). Contemporary and historical London meets here between exclusive headquarters of major corporations and the Georgian architecture that remains on the west side. The magnificent 220 year old London Plane trees that were once the view of former residents Winston Churchill and George Canning still stand tall today. Although the square is now a mainly non-residential area, No. 50 is legendary as being the most haunted house in London and is frequented by an apparition that has frightened at least three visitors to death.

The elegant glass Business Centre provides a perfect setting for Eleanor Cardozo’s Poise. Her gymnast balances between two circles of the globe and a hoop. With one balletic foot on the North Pole and a golden arm stretching out to touch the sun, precise equilibrium is achieved. The composition is excellently considered, from the triangle formed by the crook of the neck, bend in the knee and sharply arched spine, to the creased curve of a slipper mirrored in the smooth bronze lines of the leotard.

Ian Edwards’ two sculptures draw an earthy contrast to the smooth glamour of the Cardozo piece. The Calling seems to be forming in front of our eyes, pulling itself roughly out of the clay or molten lava. The dramatic posture and agonised expression suggest the pain of a newborn soul exposed to light for the first time. Edwards has given the skin the texture of the trees outside, the bark dappled, knotted and peeling. Similarly, The Root Within is a man becoming part of the dirt again, straitjacketed by vines that snake up around his legs. Roots entwine with veins and muscles; twisted and sinewy they seem to writhe as the man becomes tree, and the tree becomes man.

The Berkeley Square Business Centre’s distinctive glass entrance and brick façade is just a short journey away from Hay Hill Gallery’s original space at 35 Baker Street. Other works by Cardozo and Edwards are on show there during 2014 alongside a sculpture collection and featured contemporary artists.
 

The sculptures exhibited by the Hay Hill Gallery at the Berkeley Square House in previous years:

                      E-mail: info@hayhillgallery.com