Futurecity was appointed to curate ‘Bicameral’ (2019) by Conrad Shawcross RA at Chelsea Barracks. Commissioned by Chelsea Barracks, ‘Bicameral’ is the artist’s most ambitious art commission in London to date. It was announced to the public in November 2019.
In 2015, Futurecity collaborated with Chelsea Barracks to strategize potential sites for public art interventions. They were then entrusted with developing the artist’s brief, managing artist selection, and overseeing the artwork’s concept-to-installation process. Bicameral, the selected artwork, crafted from anodized aluminum, stands 8m tall and consists of 693 parts that cascade outward in scale without welding, using Japanese wood joinery techniques. Engineered by Structure Workshop, it symbolizes the bifurcating and trifurcating elements that loosely form two hemispheres or sides, inspired by Julian Jaynes’ theory on consciousness.
Situated at Dove Place, adjacent to Whistler Square in Belgravia, Bicameral celebrates the area’s botanical history and craftsmanship ethos at Chelsea Barracks. The monumental sculpture, resembling both a wooded arbour and the human brain’s neural network, invites viewers to pause and reflect under its dappled shade. This work marks a new direction for Shawcross, known for his captivating sculptures blending mathematics, philosophy, and natural sciences. Bicameral is one of two major public artworks curated by Futurecity in London, the other being Optic Cloak at the Low Carbon Energy Centre on the Greenwich Peninsula.
