Liliane Lijn

Starslide has been commissioned by Guy's and St. Thomas' Charity for the Evelina Children's Hospital designed by Michael Hopkins and Partners and part of the St. Thomas's Hospital complex on London's South Bank.

I was asked to conceive a sculpture which would also be a children's helterskelter. The slide, like the mythical Ouroboros encircling Mt Meru, is moulded into the cone. Children access the interior through a wave shaped opening in the cone and climb a luminous ramp attached to the inside spiral of the slide to reach an opening leading to the slide.

My work involves a dialogue between opposites, my sculptures using light and motion to transform themselves from solid to void, opaque to transparent, formal to organic. In Starslide, I am particularly interested in the inside-outness of the form taken by the work and the way in which this double nature directly affects its function.

The difficulty in making a work of art that is at the same time a functional children's slide, is in creating both without compromising either. My concept of sculpture is that no part of it should be unnecessary. I wanted to design a slide that both in concept and form would be an integral part of the sculpture.

Price on application.