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The sculpture was created in front of a live audience throughout Expo 2020 Dubai ’ s duration
Nicola Anthony was appointed the Artist-In-Residence at the
UK Pavilion
The artwork is created from two unlikely mediums : The outer ‘ skin ’ is made of individually suspended fragments of inked paper and ghost nets ( washed up fishing nets ), giving an ethereal sense of weightlessness to the hourglass-shaped sculpture .
In contrast , an illuminated high tech core is made of LED lights which represent the sands of time . Each point of light pulses in response to the # COP26 hashtag feed . Borrowing from AI technology , the sculpture illuminates in different colours depending on the sentiment detected in the global digital conversation .
During Expo 2020 the artist addressed the UK ’ s creative industry delegates at a networking breakfast , gave a TED style talk during the Summit , had a live interview at Dubai One TV
studio , and was interviewed as a feature on Abu Dhabi TV .
All these engagements promoted the creative industry and artists in the UK , as well as highlighting the deeper topic of climate change . The ‘ See Things Differently ’ social media campaign gained millions of viewers who tuned in to see the sculpture created live or to understand creativity through the mind of an artist .
The artwork was subsequently shortlisted for the DARC Awards and is currently being transported back to the UK with a view to a museum or public space adopting the sculpture as a permanent piece .
Get directly in the mind of the artist at @ nicola _ anthony on Instagram and Twitter . in partnership with www . nicolaanthony . co . uk
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