Michael Rakowitz, April is the cruellest month, 2021
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“It’s about engaging people in seeing something that is unexpected, that they might want to look at and find out more about,” the curator of the project, Tamsin Dillon, says. The latest four works join three other outdoor pieces by Michael Rakowitz, Jasleen Kaur and Katrina Palmer, which were unveiled earlier this month.
The seven public commissions, on view until 12 November, are presented with partner art organisations across the southeast, from Metal in Southend-on-Sea to Towner Eastbourne, taking in 870 miles of coastline. Crucially, the works are accessible “at any time of day, so that [the public] don’t have to go into the gallery to see the work,” Dillon says.
However, the curator hopes that the pieces will encourage people who would not ordinarily go to galleries or museums to take that first step. The sculpture of a young soldier by the US artist Michael Rakowitz is “going to be noticed by people who wouldn’t necessarily go to [nearby] Turner Contemporary,” Dillon says. “But the hope is that they will make their way there and go that little bit further.”