IMG 7015-001-Poem in Lights to be Scattered in the Square Mile

Cass Sculpture Foundation, Goodwood, West Sussex.

Originally commissioned by Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London. Poem in Lights to be Scattered in the Square Mile is Robert Montgomery’s first monumental outdoor work in metal and light. Inspired by meteorology Montgomery addresses the heightened effect of weather on the collective consciousness of the city. As an artist who has lived and worked in East London, the weather in the city often informs Montgomery’s work to highlight how nature can still be felt in urban landscapes. Montgomery regards the weather as a stimulus for both intimate and shared experiences. For instance a serene natural incident, such as clouds passing, is perhaps felt on a personal level but is in fact shared, and can have the effect of contributing to the collective mood of the metropolis. This work uses abstraction and beat poetry to create a rhythmic work that suggests the feeling, rather than reality, of city dwelling. Drawing on the historical concept of Social Sculpture pioneered by the German Fluxus artist Joseph Beuys, which proposed that everything has the potential to be a creative material and everyone to be an artist, Montgomery proposes a beautiful sentiment that the city is itself a ‘MAGIC SCULPTURE’ capable of inspiring affect.