Ugo Rondinone: Public Art, London, 2024

The Street Permanent Public Art Commission

LaunchED Summer 2024

Orange Yellow Hermit (2022) is a new bronze sculpture by Ugo Rondinone and a highlight of The Paddington Square Public Art Programme. Standing five metres high and weighing 1600 kg, the artwork addresses the dual reflection between the inner self and the natural world. It is central London’s popular new meeting place.

Conceived from limestone fragments the artist discovered during his walks in nature, the monumental artwork is cast in bronze after scans of the friable material were reconfigured as solid three-dimensional forms using digital tools. In this work, Rondinone responds to the stone’s natural ancient origins in contemporary contexts and environments, opening up onto the world to nature and turning inward on oneself.

Orange Yellow Hermit is Rondinone’s first public realm commission in London and one of three new permanent public artworks curated by Lacuna at Paddington Square.

“Stones have been a presence and recurring material and symbol in my art. They are the subjects of the stone figures I began with the monumental Human Nature installation at the Rockefeller Plaza in 2013 followed by Seven Magic Mountains in the Nevada desert in 2016. Orange Yellow Hermit will continue to address the dual reflection between the inner self and the natural world. Just as the external world one sees is inseparable from the internal structures of oneself, this work allows layers of signification to come in and out of focus, prompting the viewer to revel in the pure sensory experience of colour, form and mass while simultaneously engendering an altogether contemporary version of the sublime.”

– Ugo Rondinone

Paddington Square is central London’s new working, shopping and dining quarter, with a 14-storey crystalline building designed by the leading architecture studio, Renzo Piano Building Workshop. The development also includes a new entrance to London Underground, west London’s highest rooftop dining experience and a 1.35-acre public square, providing a world-class welcome to London for millions of domestic and international travellers passing through Paddington and Heathrow Express every year.

The Paddington Square Public Art Programme was developed in the framework of Section 106 – a compulsory urban planning requirement in the UK – and produced in collaboration with St. Mary’s Hospital, local businesses and residential associations, and with strong engagement from Westminster City Council. It presents newly commissioned, site-specific artworks by critically acclaimed contemporary artists with no prior permanent projects in London’s public realm.

The Paddington Square Public Art Programme was commissioned by Great Western Developments and curated by Lacuna.