"We curated a collection of site-specific commissioned sculptures for both sites," commented Alison. "The five Austin sculptures all in metal, and the six Grand Austin sculptures in stone, to give a sculptural identity to each site."
For the stone collection – The Grand Austin – Jonathan Loxley was selected due to the geometric form and beauty of his work. “We wanted every sculpture to reflect the creative and technical talent of each artist, and Jonathan’s work was perfect for this location,” explained Alison.
There is a precise geometry of ‘Yong’ that reflects a very Chinese ethos, and the translation of the title means ‘eternity’, which Alison felt was a warm and welcoming metaphor for a residential complex. The apparent simplicity of the design is disguised in the very complex skill of carving and polishing the form out of a single piece of stone, and Alison wanted this also to represent the different layers of a diverse community.
“Hong Kong is a densely populated city, and it is rare to have anything other than more buildings in the view. However, placing Jonathan’s sculpture in the garden’s entrance encourages the viewer to look at the sculpture and notice the greenery beyond, rather than the skyline behind,” adds Alison.
Jonathan’s career began by painting and building sets for theatre and film. He then became a Sculptor on major motion pictures, such as Labyrinth, Santa Claus the Movie, A Fish Called Wanda and Aliens. After catching cerebral malaria at the age of 28, Jonathan saw life differently and travelled to Carrara, Italy – the home of marble – and stayed there for nine years sculpting, before returning to the UK to set up a studio.
Jonathan’s ‘Yong’ sculpture was chosen from his archive portfolio; a piece he had made many years ago. The brief was to recreate the sculpture at 250cm tall by 340cm wide. Jonathan’s inspiration for his Yong sculpture is ‘eternity’, evident by the continuous ribbon of marble. Chinese culture is steeped in symbolic shapes and figures, and this sculpture, although geometrically very complex, is contained within a very simple triangle.
The shape is effectively a band of marble that looks as if it has been twisted over three planes to return to itself. “An ant could travel on one path of the ribbon and return to its starting point having travelled over every surface,” explains Jonathan.
Having a similar belief to Alison, Jonathan believes his Yong sculpture pulls the eye down to the human level again. “Hong Kong is dominated by dizzyingly tall structures. This piece is a statement of respect to the viewer. It has no other function other than to please the eye of the viewer and humanise the structures around it,” comments Jonathan.
The sculpture was installed with a large crane, taking around six hours to install. The powder coated steel base has pierced flanges, so as to be bolted to the concert plinth in the ground. Jonathan experienced an obstacle when it came to the installation, as the ground team had wrongly placed the bolts in the concert so the base did not fit. This was overcome by redrawing new holes and using expanding bolts.
The sculpture is produced from Turkin Blu Italian marble – the last block quarried from the mountains before the council shut works down for historical reasons. The Turkin Blu marble is classy and elegant and Jonathan felt its colour was perfect for a ‘still brooding’ piece. The grey base is slightly darker and, Jonathan felt, really the only colour that would complement the marble. The base is produced from a powder coated aluminium shell over a stainless steel inner structure.
It took Jonathan five months to create Yong. The obstacles he came across when sculpting the piece was emptying the interior space: “I had to design and build a few tools to help me achieve this as they are not available on the market,” explained Jonathan. Polishing the whole sculpture by hand was very challenging, especially when it came to the inner space. “I had to leave it sometimes – there is an Italian expression ‘crazy as a polisher,’” humoured Jonathan.