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40 Peter Newman b. 1969 Peter Newman attended the Salisbury Cathedral School before studying at Goldsmiths College from 1987—90. Since graduating, he has had solo exhibitions in London, Brussels, Hamburg, New York, Chicago and Tokyo. In 2004 his work was projected onto the exterior of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan for the inaugural exhibition. In 2005 he received an artist award from the Arts Council of England. Skystation is an interactive public sculpture, inspired by Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand's LC4 chaise-longue, that also acts as a piece of public seating. The contours of the work are designed to fit the reclining human form and encourage contemplation of the sky and the vast expanse of space above. An object to be both observed and used, Skystation has the incidental effect of bringing its users' heads into close proximity, thereby making conversation between strangers almost inevitable, whilst looking upwards. Newman reminds us that, 'Gravity dictates the earth contains a buried past of dinosaurs and archaeology, the surface reveals the activity of present daily life, but what is above is an empty field of possibility, a space in which to conceive and live the future.' Cognitive research suggests we do our best thinking lying down. In his book Phenomenology of Perception, Maurice Merleau-Ponty emphasized the body as a primary site of knowing the world. Consciousness, the world, and the human body as a perceiving thing, are intricately intertwined and mutually engaged. Skystation reflects this idea, as an artwork that is completed by the viewer experientially. Art historian Tim Marlow comments: "Peter Newman's sculpture is contemplative and with a strong physical presence: it examines the Utopian values of Modernist art but also has a transcendental quality to it." A maquette of Skystation was first shown at the Guggenheim Museum in Venice during the Architecture Biennale. The full-scale sculpture was first installed in Trafalgar Square in 2005. Since then it has been sited at the Hayward Gallery, Turner Contemporary, New Art Centre, the City of London, Snape Maltings and Manchester. There are permanent Skystations at Canary Wharf and Nine Elms in London, and in Cambridge in the UK, and in the collection of MUDAM, Museum of Modern Art in Luxembourg. Skystation, 2005 Fibreglass with coloured gel-coat 75 x 420 x 420 cm Courtesy of the artist www.peternewman.net Skystation offers the public a place to rest and contemplate the surroundings of Salisbury Cathedral. How might it affect the life of the community if each locality had a Skystation?

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