Infinity Poles 1
2024
As part of the development of the McDonald’s Drive-Thru, the developers created a small pocket park to the front that also functions as a public space with seating, lighting, planting and public artwork at the centre.
It functions as a welcoming space for customers, workers and visitors to the area.
The artwork forms the centre piece of the pocket park to the left of McDonald’s on Gatwick Road. It can be found midway between Gateway 1 and Gateway 5 on the western side of Gatwick Road in Zone 4 (Green)
Designed and fabricated by architect and local artist Karl Singporewala, the totem poles usually tell a story about ancestry, histories, people, or events. These two 8m high poles from Singporewala’s ‘infinity’ series do all four at the same time. The sculptures use John Keats’ Ode on a Grecian Urn, as the subject matter to deliver an abstract layered spectacle on a specific period of time in the artist’s life.
The colours represent the artist’s four young children. The helter skelter elements represents a spiral downwards, ‘getting to the bottom, just to go back to the top, and do it all again’. The location is the site of the artist’s father’s old office building - Redifusion/Hughes/Thales, with the golf-type flag poles aesthetic representing retirement. This is mirrored by the own artist’s change in direction, and change in home. The oscillating forms symbolise Grecian Urns and their meaning linked to the new Grecian beauty in the artist’s life.
Another Infinity Pole can be found in the nearby pocket park alongside Starbucks.
These 8m high totems are actually made from re-purposed lampposts and stainless steel industrial chimney flue components. Other local companies were used in the creation of the poles, Colbridge Engineering did the stainless steel laser cutting and the paintwork was provided by Harwoods.
