The gates are located between the housing development – a redevelopment of the old hospital and one-time asylum between Mile End and Bow. The gates link the development to the Tower Hill cemetery park. With inclusion of the twin faces of Janus the god of thresholds and the portrait of a young woman, the gates representation of transitions from young to old, from life to death, from the busy thoroughfare of the Mile End Road to the quiet tranquility of the footpath and the cemetery park.

Agnes work is characterised by the single line of her drawing translated into steel to retain the fluidity and the spontaneity of her drawing. Wire work models are used to scale the drawing and develop the three dimensional form. Agnes describes her works as the struggle between the functional and the sculptural. Scaling up sketches into wire work and then into large metal work helps to retain the exciting feel and energy of her original drawings, leading to the surprise of finding a drawing in metal which is also functional.

Agnes is currently based in Glasgow, and has been featured in BBC Scotland’s programme ‘Loop’.

Commission: Transitions

Artist: Agnes Jones

Materials: forged steel

Location: Mile End, London

Client: Linden Homes