23 Jul 08

'Y' completes a circle of willow trees at Magalden College

Turner Prize-winning artist Mark Wallinger has created his first-ever dedicated permanent artwork after being commissioned by Magdalen College to produce a piece to celebrate the college’s 550th anniversary.

The sculpture, ‘Y’, has taken two years to create and can be found in Magdalen College’s grounds in Bat Willow Meadow, where it completes a circle of willow trees.

The tall, tree-like sculpture reflects the changing light throughout the day and visitors can walk up to and around the work. When the meadow floods, as it often does at certain times of the year, the reflections of ‘Y’ on the water should add another dimension to the sculpture.

Mark Wallinger admitted it was a little daunting to attempt to come up with something which might reflect upon 550 years of learning and said that the sculpture has a combination of influences: ‘The bifurcating forks or tines of ‘Y’ are like the branches of the college’s ancestral tree or the antlers of the college deer. The repeated figure references divining rods, typically cut from the trees found in Bat Willow Meadow, and the structure echoes the Gothic tracery, which is present within the architecture of the college.’

Standing at around 10 metres high and 10 metres wide, it took some engineering ingenuity to get the mild steel sculpture in to the correct location, not least moving the machinery needed for the foundations over a small, old bridge, as the meadow is an island in the River Cherwell. As with a real tree, the foundations of ‘Y’ have taken root in the meadow and the 12 piles go down around eight metres.

Magdalen College was founded in 1458 and the College President, Professor David Clary, told visitors at the unveiling that the college wanted a piece of 21st-century art which everyone could come and enjoy, as much of the art work in the college is considerably older and often inaccessible to the public.

Professor Clary said: ‘We are delighted to commission this remarkable sculpture from Mark Wallinger. It will be an original and permanent celebration of our 550th year.’

Mark Wallinger is best known for State Britain, his re-creation of Brian Haw's protest display outside parliament, which won the Turner Prize in 2007 and Ecce Homo, his lifesize sculpture of Jesus Christ which inaugurated the Fourth Plinthin Trafalgar Square in 1999.

The commission has been supported by Arts Council England and the Henry Moore Foundation, with the generous assistance of Roger Kay, a member of the College, and his wife Izabella.