On Saturday 8 February we installed several works in the permanent gallery spaces. Having Joana and her team working in the galleries was exciting; visitors were able to experience the whole process from opening up the crates to the final positioning of the work. As we moved from gallery to gallery, small crowds of curious visitors formed. Many were watching as the latest work, Bond Girl, was installed.

Bond Girl, which is part of Joana Vasconcelos’ cement sculpture series, depicts a female nude standing on a plinth covered from head to toe in lace. The work is heavy, relocating it from its tall crate to the gallery floor slowly and carefully. The piece was wrapped for transport, and the obscured work drew a lot of attention from visitors to the gallery. When the work was finally revealed the gallery was packed with people interested in what was happening!

And we finally opened up the crates that housed Full Steam Ahead (Red, Green and Yellow). The works couldn’t be placed until now because we’ve had to store much of the show’s crated art works within the Temporary Exhibitions galleries at the onset of installation. Therefore, Full Steam Ahead had to wait until all the other works were removed from the crates and placed before there was room to even uncrate the 150 kg works.  Finally only three crates remained. The robotic sculptures needed to be lifted out of their crates with a gantry. They are almost 2 meters tall and over 1.5 meters wide, so they were also moved into position while suspended.