Plinth

Rondinone’s (eminently Instagrammable) Post-It-note palette is echoed throughout the square’s other three commissions by Kathrin Böhm, Pae White, and Catherine Yass. All four works are similar in scale; go-big-or-go-home, holding their own against the new Renzo Piano-designed 17-storey tower. The building, billed as ‘a clear floating cube levitating above the ground’ by Piano and Joost Moolhuijzen, is already being aptly dubbed the ‘ice cube’. ‘Levitating’ and ‘floating’ might be pushing it: docked or landed, more like it. Nevertheless, Rondinone’s work in particular does a good job of warming the place up.

Perhaps another reason for the vibrant palette of the four new commissions is that they were conceived during the pandemic, when populated public squares were deeply longed for, yet almost inconceivable. Part of the transformation of the site outside the station is a large new piazza, which feels genuinely continental and comes complete with pedestrians hanging out on its steps. Curated by Lacuna, the work in situ is similarly social, international in scope and animated by the energy of a community on the move.

Catherine Yass’ photographic piece NHS Swimmers (2023), for instance, sees ten local NHS workers carving shapes through water, paying homage to the nearby St. Mary’s Hospital. Inspired by the angels in Giotto’s frescoes, the work lines a 24-metre wall on Tanner Lane; its featured water echoes the flow of traffic on the street below, while Yass’ trademark blue neatly nods to the NHS logo.

Nearby, Kathrin Böhm's work, presented in collaboration with The Showroom, likewise anchors itself in its surroundings. Through a series of public workshops, Böhm engaged with the community on her work’s titular question: Why do we care about art? (2023). The result of the workshops is a call to replace the word ‘art’ with ‘freedom to do things’, which is writ large in the artist’s taped lettering above the street. While a great sentiment, the result is somewhat constrained and meta – subversive, considering the artist had the freedom to make something for a 92 square metre billboard.

Pae White’s rollercoaster-red Somethinging (2023) similarly bursts towards freedom. Its tornadic form twists up from the tube exit to the shop and restaurant levels above. Resembling a dragonfly’s wing, the sculpture moves with the architectural flow of the site, guiding visitors from the underground station through to the new piazza – useful, and beautiful. The play of light and colour in White’s work, created from thousands of aluminium panels and rivets, creates all the more movement as the viewer walks in turn around the monumental structure.

Lacuna Projects, the curatorial agency behind Sculpture in the City, are no strangers to seeing major artworks reflected in the domineering curtain walls of the capital's most imposing buildings. In Paddington Square, they once again unite art, architecture, and people. The result is levity, off-set by a satisfying solidity. The conviviality and scale of these works offer both a respite and a focal point, transforming the outside of the historic station into a world-facing gateway rather than a grim thoroughfare. They might have been developed during the depths of 2020, but these commissions mark a new beginning. Yass makes a splash, Rondinone beckons faroff passersby, Böhm pushes the conversation forward — and from the busy beating of White's dragonfly wing to the sound of your packed suitcase rolling through the new piazza, the message is unanimous: let's go.

By Sammi Gale