Internationally renowned designer Sabine Marcellis was the recipient of the ninth Colin Post 4 Plinths Project commission.
Her work, Merging Blocks (2024–2026), marked a significant moment in Sabine’s practice, bringing an element of scale and permanency. The four large coloured and mirrored glass volumes, in varying proportions and orientations, injected warmth into the grey bollards and their surrounds.
Sabine is known for her experimental approach to materiality and light, with her works often playing with perception and perspective through subtle transparencies, mirrored finishes, and varying gradients. Exploring the interplay of colour, shape, and light, Merging Blocks fundamentally changed perceptions by treating the plinths as part of the artwork.
Sabine said of her work:
“Having spent much of my childhood in New Zealand, that formative period in which connection and understanding of place are solidified in ways that we often do not understand until much later, this project marks something special for me.
“Each volume has been designed to reflect a different aspect of the city: the faces of those passing, the tangle of clouds or the emptiness of the sky – they show us the mood of a city and the hijinks of the weather.
“The works are also activated by the shifting light of their location. Throughout the day, as the light changes so too does the footprint of each block. On bright days, it will stretch and increase, casting a glow across pavements, faces and buildings. The Blocks alter our experience of this space through colour, shape, and light.”
