THIS WEEK The V&A unveiled London-based artist Thomas J Price’s monumental new sculpture, ‘A Place Beyond’, outside V&A East Museum, on East Bank in Stratford’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, ahead of the museum’s public opening in April.
At 18ft, ‘A Place Beyond’, is Price’s tallest sculpture to-date. Welcoming visitors into V&A East Museum, the sculpture depicts a fictionalised young person in casual dress, mobile phone in-hand, looking out to a horizon full of possibilities.
‘A Place Beyond’ is created from an amalgamation of images, 3D scans and observations. Constructed in bronze, using digital technology and ancient techniques, Price continues to critique narratives within classical sculpture.
The title, ‘A Place Beyond’ is meant to encourage viewers to bring their own thoughts, feelings and lived experiences to the work.
The sculpture acts as a quiet emblem for change and a rejection of social or racial profiling to instead create connection through everyday moments.
The V&A East Youth Collective were consulted during the process to help create an important new public artwork for east London, celebrating the diversity of the area.
Price enthused: “Being based in east London, it means so much to have my public work, A Place Beyond, on display at V&A East Museum.
“I want this sculpture to become an extension of the people who inhabit the museum, and the spaces around it.
“This commission is especially meaningful to me as I was taken to the V&A as a child with my mother and it has shaped much of my critique of museum collections.
“I’m excited to be part of the next chapter in the V&A’s evolution in east London.”
Designed by architects O’Donnell and Tuomey, V&A East Museum, opens on April 18, on East Bank in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Gus Casely-Hayford, V&A East Director, said: “V&A East Museum is for everyone – I want you to feel that this space is for you.
“I’ve long admired Thomas J Price’s work as an east London based artist working on an international scale. His sculptures have such presence and are meticulously crafted, yet their power lies in their perceived ordinariness, and the relationships they build with their surroundings and the communities they share space with.
“At V&A East Museum, we celebrate creativity for a changing world. Thomas’s A Place Beyond symbolises those historically excluded from public monuments, challenging our preconceptions about representation, perception and identity.
“I can’t think of a more powerful work to greet our visitors on their way into V&A East Museum.”
Co-created with young people, creatives, and those living, working and studying in east London, it celebrates making and creativity for a changing world.
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