Now on view in Ramsgate until September 2023 – Conrad Shawcross: Beacons

On view until 30 September 2023
 

Commissioned by local children in Ramsgate, Beacons is officially launched. Believed to be the largest scale artwork to have been commissioned by children, the interactive sculptures are made from galvanised steel, painted to reference the nautical flags used in maritime signaling. A concealed word — HOME — is hidden within the design, based on a coded alphabet devised by the children, who chose this as the message for the beacons send out to sea.

Each of the sculptures can be animated by a handle that activates the sails, resulting in beautiful and ever-changing tessellations as the perforated sails gently pass over one another.⁠⁠

Shawcross was selected by over 70 children who are leading the placemaking project Pioneering Places. Beacons is a response to their brief for an artwork that would embody, 'playfulness, caring, and modern machines.'

Beacons is on view at Ramsgate's East Cliff, overlooking the beach.

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Image courtesy Conrad Shawcross