Anthony Poon surprises us with this installation sculpture situated outside the St Regis Hotel, a break from the usual fare of shaped canvases and relief paintings. Signs of his obsession with near-mathematical precision still remain in the clean, calculated geometry of the curvilinear forms, but this work is markedly different in character.
As Poon’s canvas works seem to conceal even the finest of brush strokes in its sleek, uniform gradients, Sense Surround seems to be an ironic return to the basic element of the painting – the brush stroke. The playful twirling of the red aluminium strips is reminiscent of the carefree trajectory of an abstract expressionist painter’s brush. The compression of the sculpture into a comparatively flat vertical plane seems to further reinforce the idea that the red lines are symbolic of paint strokes applied to canvas. This celebration of the single, individualistic brush stroke runs counter to Poon’s hallmark style of clean colour that seems almost digitally constructed. Perhaps it was the nature of the specially commissioned work as a public sculpture that has coerced Poon into adopting a more energetic visual style – it is possible that a work purely reliant on flat planes of colour would not generate enough visual interest in a public space.
Sense Surround’s vivid colour and form lend a unique energy and rhythm to its immediate environment that successful sculptural works tend to bring. The bright, saturated red calls to mind the ideas of positivity and ferocious passion. The absence of such a strong hue in the sculpture’s surroundings allows the work itself to take the limelight, complementing the nearby foliage’s deep greens and the hotel’s sleek chrome. Red, in local context, is frequently seen as an auspicious colour of festivity and could have been chosen with the intent of bringing good luck, as is often the case with commercially commissioned installations. The absence of hard edges on the sculpture mellows the sculpture’s form, but its playful composition creates the mental image of a red ribbon dancing in the wind, implying movement and energy.
If one word were to be used to sum up this work, it would be rhythm. The thinness of the aluminium and the suspension of the form over water seem to make the sculpture levitate. Its lightweight appearance enhances the movement that its form already successfully creates. From one end of the structure to the other, the viewer’s gaze is led in the fickle path of the red strips.The personality and influence hatched by Anthony Poon in Sense Surround are hard to replicate.