UK artist Alex Chinneck is making waves with his very festive sculpture, Fighting Fire with Ice Cream, on display in Granary Square in King’s Cross, London. The seven-metre tall installation, on show until 6 January, comprises a Christmas tree encased inside a vast block of resin (the piece looks like a gargantuan block of ice; there is even a surrounding “puddle” around the tree shrine which looks like it’s melting). Chinneck is known for his quirky creations such as From the Knees of my Nose to the Belly of My Toes (2013), which shows a house façade in Margate falling away from the building. Next year, the sculptor is planning to unveil another spectacle in London on Fulham Palace Road. “We’re removing about 3,000 bricks from the existing facade of this building, and we’re installing a 75-metre crack running through it, and it’s illuminated at night,” he told the Evening Standard which dubbed the inventive artist the “Willy Wonka of sculpture”.
