Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Fulcrum

Fulcrum by Richard Serra, Broadgate exit Liverpool Street Station, London

“Fulcrum” by Richard Serra, 1987
Broadgate exit, Liverpool Street Station
London, October 2009

“A couple of weeks back I was in London and as usual was running late so rather than plunging into the bowels of the Tube I caught a cab through the bowels of The City to Liverpool Street Station for my train up to Norwich. As I rattled my bags across the Bishopsgate cobbles I saw the tops of the four massive sheets of steel that make up ‘Fulcrum.’ As I came closer the rest was revealed. There, nestled in the belly of a small amphitheatre that led to the Broadgate entrance was the first Serra sculpture I’d seen since Bilbao. It was unmistakably a Serra. I walked into the station, checked my ticket and platform then wandered back out for a closer look. Notwithstanding the massiveness of Fulcrum – it reaches 55 feet into the air and must – it still works on a human scale. While Fulcrum looks at first glance like a pile of rusted steel headed for the scrap-yard you can soon see how it works at this site. You can lean against it and watch the world go by.” (Sculpture you want to punch – Richard Serra’s “Fulcrum”, Crikey)

1 comment:

Dina said...

Good to have a fulcrum in case you need to get some "leverage." :)