Major interactive sculpture planned for Plymouth

Never been shown outside London

A large outdoor art installation which was shown at a London gallery could be on its way to Plymouth.

Plymouth City Council is asking its own planning committee to allow The Hop by Jyll Bradley to be placed at a patio area outside St Luke’s Church at Tavistock Place as part of an exhibition run by The Box.

Inspired by the Kent countryside, ‘The Hop’ is made of 12 individual ‘umbrella’ structures, each almost four metres high, constructed of timber and coloured acrylic plastic called Plexiglas.

At ground level, the umbrellas are two metres apart to allow visitors to walk through or sit in the installation. The spacing allows access for people using wheelchairs, other mobility support and also for pushchairs.

The installtion is part of a wider exhibition of Ms Bradley’s work between April and November inside the church and at the main Box building.

The art is said to connect the urban landscape to rural hop garden growing structures to create a colourful, interactive pavilion.

The sculpture was so popular with visitors to the Hayward Gallery in London that it was in place for a year, planning documents say. It has not been shown outside London and will be adapted by the artist specially for The Box.

Ms Bradley’s adoptive family was originally from Plymouth. Her grandfather worked in the dockyard and was a firefighter during the Blitz. She spent many summers as a child in the region.

For an exhibition called Human Cargo in 2007, she created a new piece of worok for Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, which addressed the local flower farming culture, and is now part of the The Box’s art collection.

DAT Events and locally based structural engineers Brody Forbes will work with the artist on the installation.

Visitors to the Box will be able to view it from welcome areas, cafes and the Active Archives area on the first floor. Interpretation boards will explain the concept.

St Luke’s Church is integrated into The Box complex which is owned and run by Plymouth City Council and includes the former city museum and art gallery as well as the central library.

The Box opened in September 2020 at a cost £46 million and has welcomed around one million visitors since.