This commissions aims:
- Enliven the courtyard
- Create interest in the courtyard when viewed from all angles and directions
- Respond to the level changes in the courtyard and to the light levels, and consider the use of lighting and colour
- Help avoid institutional blandness and create a sense of place
- Be appropriate to the environment in terms of materials and installation
- Be responsive to the needs of the users of the Brunel building
Titled ‘Coloured Discs’, the artist, Ally Wallace's sculpture is a series of nine coloured metal discs, mounted onto aluminium posts ranging from 180 cm to 250 cm in height and from 49 cm to 68 cm in diameter. The circular shapes contrast with the rectangular geometry of the building and organic area of planting. The surfaces are coloured and face upwards so that they are illuminated by ambient natural light. In the evenings the surfaces will pick up light from the fading sky and the surrounding corridor lights, changing in relation to the viewer’s position in the Brunel building.
The idea is bold and simple, the sculpture introducing colour into the space in a composition that integrates with the designed planted area.
About the Artist – Ally Wallace
Ally Wallace (b.1960 Lanark, Scotland) studied painting at Sunderland Polytechnic (BA Hons 1982-85) and site-specific sculpture at Wimbledon School of Art, London (MA 1996-98).
He has exhibited widely since the mid-1980s in a combination of public art projects and solo or group exhibitions. His public projects include Burghley House (sculpture park, 2001), Rufford Abbey, Newark (sculpture park, 2003), New Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (exterior, 2004), Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, Brighton (exterior, 2007) and a solar-powered light piece for the Napier Building, Govan, Glasgow (exterior, 2005). His sculptures and installations are defined by their minimalist aesthetic of colour, paper and light, both natural and artificial, using limited means to craft simple forms with high visual impact.
