Artist Alex Chinneck reveals his first permanent artwork, Six pins and half a dozen needles

Artist Alex Chinneck has completed his first permanent artwork, a 10-tonne “torn brick” sculpture titled Six pins and half a dozen needles. Installed on the side of a new office development, Assembly London, in Hammersmith, the work blends seamlessly into the building’s brick facade, creating a surreal spectacle typical of the artist’s previous work.

The piece uses 4,000 bricks and over 1,000 stainless steel components. It took 14 months to complete and saw the artist working with engineers, steelworkers and brick-makers.

“The work was conceived to engage people in a fun and uplifting way,” he explains in a statement. “Although we use real brick, it was designed with a cartoon-like quality to give the sculpture an endearing artifice and playful personality.”

Six pins and half a dozen needles follows Alex’s other well known public works including the upside-down electricity pylon Bullet from a Shooting Star in London’s Greenwich, a melting house made from wax bricks, an upside-down house in Blackfriars, a house with its front sliding off in Margate, and a hovering stone building in Covent Garden.

View Six pins and half a dozen needles at 77 Fulham Palace Road, London, from 1 August 2017.