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Date: 2012 - 2018

Location: Bristol, UK

Project: Public Art Commission

Partners: Bristol City Council, Castlemore, Hills Construction, S McConnell and Sons, Witherford Watson Mann

Curator: Aldo Rinaldi

Artist: Roger Hiorns

Turner nominated artist, Roger Hiorns’ inaugural permanent public artwork ‘Free Tank: The retrospective view of the pathway’ has been in development since 2012, when Hiorns' work was commissioned as part of the Bristol Temple Quarter waterfront master plan. Designed with Stirling Prize winning architects Witherford Watson Mann, the ambitious work is comprised of an architectural space that is the setting for a pair of monolithic furnaces made from Zimbabwean black granite weighing over 10 tonnes and reaching 7 metres in stature.

Bristol’s Floating Harbour is a historic lock system designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Over time the banks were in-filled, and a harbour wall built, leaving a single pennant stonewall which the artist has integrated into the work. The project is the result of 4 years research and development where Hiorns marks the ancient route called the ‘Free Tank’; a former inlet to the water’s edge which permitted the public to draw aqua pura from the tidal harbour. Hiorns re-establishes this lost route by allowing visitor access to the same water’s edge, whilst simultaneously evoking references to its prior use as a glass works. 

Aesthetically it's a reaction against the corporate architecture, and materials it surrounds, “An insertion of authenticity in an area that is considered inauthentic”. Hiorns practice often deals with dominant objects and themes, where the work becomes an object of information. Rather than literally looking at the work itself as an object  it becomes a vessel for a wider story. The artist worked closely with Stephen Witherford from Witherford Watson Mann, calling on the traditional craft of stonemasonry that was combined with innovative hi-tech facilities to produce intricate furnace sculptures fabricated by S McConnell and Sons in Kilkeel, Northern Ireland.

Hiorns carries on his battle against the establishment through intertwining themes of tension and utopia, intending to stir interpretation among viewers from their visual and physical experiences. Hiorns challenges confinement​ and prefers exploring the open question, “why can’t life itself be the material for a work of art?” by promising simultaneously to provoke, engage and challenge visitors. 

Hiorns has featured in numerous exhibitions at institutions throughout Europe and the Americas, including the Biennale of Venice; MoMA PS1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, NY; Tate Modern, London; the Armand Hammer Museum of Art at UCLA, Los Angeles; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; and De Hallen, Haarlem. Hiorns’ work is included in such institutional collections as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; and Tate Modern, London. In 2009, Hiorns was nominated for the Turner Prize for his critically acclaimed work, Seizure, a massive crystallization within the interior of a bedsit in a condemned South London council estate. In 2011, Seizure was acquired by the Arts Council Collection and is currently on a ten-year loan for exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in Yorkshire, England. Hiorns won the Faena Prize for the Arts, Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2016 and has recently had solo exhibitions at Centre PasquArt, Biel; Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague; and Ikon Gallery, Birmingham.

Hiorns spoke with Studio International about his wider practice and the Free Tank project - the video can be watched here