Tuesday 28 January 2014

St Pancras Station, N1

Paul Day's colossal bronze of a pair of lovers embracing still divides opinion. For some it is a lovely, elegant, swirling image of joyful reunion. To others it is 30 feet confection of kitsch covered in golden syrup and with a cherry on top. Even Antony Gormley had a go.
The Meeting Place has some style and poise, but who could possibly have imagined that any object could be too big even for the vasty cavern of St Pancras?
In the event, it was the frieze below that created the biggest kerfuffle. It was added after the statue had been erected. The plaster maquettes were displayed before they were cast, and some of the subjects caused deep offense.
One was a train coming up behind a drunken tramp tottering down the platform. The driver was a skeleton, deemed inappropriate on a system that sees occasional deaths.
The other detail was a couple shagging on a late night platform in full view of the other passengers.
The Daily Mail had a field day, as you can imagine, and the design was altered. It is now fairly innocuous.
For my taste, it is a bit like railway modelling with a splash of surrealism, though I do like the couple embracing, the man unaware that the girl is texting behind his back.












1 comment:

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