Please Feed the Lions

[UK] Artist: Es Devlin

Year
2018 Client
London Design Enterprises / Es Devlin

Tagged:
Art Installations

We worked with designer Es Devlin to deliver this dramatic, digitally interactive sculpture, one of six Landmark Projects for 2018’s London Design Festival. The fluorescent-red lion and the ‘5th Plinth’ on which it lay had to look convincingly at home between Landseer’s famous bronze lions that guard Nelson’s Column in the heart of Trafalgar Square. The particular challenges of this project lay in the faithful replication of the lion’s carved Dartmoor granite base and in the need for a discrete, overnight installation.

In total, the installation reached an imposing 4.5 metres tall. The luminous, fluorescent-red paint finish of the lion sang out against the grey stone of Trafalgar Square, encouraging visitors to approach, interact and ‘feed’ it with words that were then projected on the column at night.