{"id":475772,"date":"2026-03-14T19:58:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T19:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/475772\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T19:58:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T19:58:20","slug":"18ft-sculpture-of-teen-with-smartphone-faces-down-va-east-visitors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/475772\/","title":{"rendered":"18ft sculpture of teen with smartphone faces down V&A East visitors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The V&A East Museum itself opens on 18 April 2026, and includes two permanent \u2018Why We Make\u2019 galleries alongside temporary exhibitions, and live events, and a caf\u00e9 by London restaurant Jikoni.<\/p>\n

Also announced today is \u2018New Work\u2019, V&A East\u2019s new six-monthly rotating creative commissions programme, which spotlights artists, designers and community collaborators who are shaping contemporary culture.<\/p>\n

New Work\u2019s inaugural theme, \u2018Making East London\u2019 invites artists Tania Bruguera, Es Devlin, Lawrence Lek, Rene Mati\u0107, Shahed Saleem, Justinien Tribillon, Carrie Mae Weems, and Laura Wilson to reflect on east London\u2019s histories and creative futures.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/
\n \u2018A Place Beyond\u2019 by Thomas J Price. (David Parry and PA Media Assignments for the V&A)<\/p>\n

The V&A has unveiled a new sculpture outside the V&A East Museum, on East Bank in Stratford\u2019s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.<\/p>\n

The 18ft sculpture \u2018A Place Beyond\u2019 s London-based artist Thomas J Price\u2019s tallest work to date, and\u00a0 depicts a fictionalised young person in casual dress, mobile phone in-hand, looking out to the horizon.<\/p>\n

The V&A said the sculpture was chosen as it \u201cacts as a quiet emblem for change and a rejection of social or racial profiling to instead create connection through everyday\u00a0 moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

The V&A East Youth Collective, a London-based group of 16\u201324 year olds, were consulted during the sculpture\u2019s selection process.<\/p>\n

The sculpture, constructed in bronze, has been created from an amalgamation of images, 3D scans and observations.<\/p>\n

Thomas J Price, said: \u201cI want this sculpture to become an extension of the people who inhabit the museum, and the spaces around it. This commission is especially meaningful to me as I was taken to the V&A as a child with my mother and it has shaped much of my critique of museum collections. I\u2019m excited to be part of the next chapter in the V&A\u2019s evolution in east London.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gus Casel-Hayford, director of V&A East said the sculpture \u201csymbolises those historically excluded from public monuments, challenging our preconceptions about representation, perception and identity. I can\u2019t think of a more powerful work to greet our visitors on their way into V&A East Museum.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The V&A East Museum itself opens on 18 April 2026, and includes two permanent \u2018Why We Make\u2019 galleries…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55,66231],"class_list":["post-475772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-va"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}