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Owner: Department of the Environment

Location: Orchard Street, Derry

Title: The City as Shape

Artist: John Aiken

Material: Granite

Size: Various sizes

Funded by: DOE and Arts Council of Northern Ireland

Background: This sculptural work is site-specific to a landscaped area on Orchard Street, adjacent to New Gate Bastion. Due to the dynamics of the sloping site, the work can be seen from both inside and outside the walls, above and below. The work consists of four granite blocks which reflect the shape of the city’s four quarters – Ferryquay Street, Shipquay Street, Butcher Street and Bishop Street. The geometric, irregular, multi-sided stones are intended by Aiken as "portraits of the old city in terms of shape and form". – an abstract translation of Derry’s walled city. The multi-textured and multi-coloured granite is highly polished and was sourced from Europe, Africa and South America. Aiken explains the reasoning behind such a variety of sources: "the range of granites used represents the diversity of cultures in Derry and its role as port." Thus the resulting monolithic forms, weighing up to twenty tons, reflect Derry’s rich historical, archaeological, commercial and cultural heritage. The titles of the historical city of Derry into a modern contemporary context. The resulting abstract conceptual sculptures, profiling Derry’s walls, placed at the heart of the city, simultaneously point to past, present and future. This work was commissioned by the Department of the Environment via an open-submission sculpture competition.

Artists Details: The sculptor John Aiken studied at the Chelsea School of Art (1968-73) and British School at Rome (1973-75). In 1986 he was appointed Head of Sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. His interest in military architecture and in archaeology underpins much of his work, German fortifications in Northern France being for him ‘the most impressive sculpture park in the world.’ He has exhibited extensively and has been awarded many commissions including a 40 metre frieze in Belfast City Hospital (1986), a steel sculpture for the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and two monumental sculptures in Portuguese granite for the Department of the Environment. John Aiken is currently Slade Professor / Director at the Slade School of Fine Art in London.