020 8530-8443Monday to Friday 10.30am to 4.30pm
Strolling along Borough High Street, your eyes might suddenly set up on a set of three figures, each one a vivid shade of brilliant blue, that appear to be clinging to and climbing the wall of Maya House - an otherwise uninspiring office block locate at numbers 124 to 138.
You are, in fact, looking at an art installation that was placed here in 2008 by the late Israeli artist Ofra Zimbalista (1939 - 2014).
Titled "Walls and Trumpets", this installation consists of three lifecasts - that is, they were cast from real people who adopted a particular pose and then held it whilst being covered in alginate and plaster from which an initial mould was created.
Fibre glass was then used to create the final figures which were painted in an Yves Klein-like deep blue, another of Ofra Zimbalista's signature motifs.
A common feature of Zimbalista's public artworks was to erect these sculptures of groups of people shown in transitional situations - hanging and climbing as though trying to find their place.
In the case of the Maya House figures, we have two climbing figures, one holding a trumpet, the other holding a bugle, and one seated figure who seems to be marching triumphantly atop the others, playing a drum - perhaps celebrating the fact that he has attained the place he was seeking?
The vivid shade of blue in which the figures are painted certainly adds a splash of colour to the drab facade up which they climb; and, without a shadow of doubt, the three figures will brighten up the day of any passerby who chances to look up as they pass Maya House.