Serpentine, London
More rock festival stage than political statement, Christo’s giant oil barrel sculpture on Hyde Park’s Serpentine leaves our critic wondering what the fish all think
It sits out on the lake, bigly. Constructed from 7,506 standard oil drums, the London Mastaba interrupts the view. More than that, it is the view. It is unmissable. Floating on London’s Serpentine, and tethered to the lake’s shallow bottom, Christo’s first major London project is an alien presence, its sides rising at 60-degree angles from the placid waters. The end walls drop sheer. A geometric presence, a blockage, a giant toy, a feat of engineering, it is a sculpture. It is a thing.
The birds look unconcerned by the 83-year-old’s creation. Fish, often attracted to underwater structures, doubtless swim and lurk underneath. The sculpture’s footprint covers 1% of the artificial lake’s surface and rises 20 metres above the water. The sides of the barrels are painted red, with a white stripe circling their circumference, giving the side-view of the sculpture the appearance of relentless cartoon brickwork. The circular barrels’ ends are variously blue, a different red or a dusky mauve. Their arrangement seems a kind of random pixilation, though the order is meticulously copied from the artist’s working drawings.
Related: 'Alien mother-ship': Christo's mastaba floats on London's Serpentine
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