Tower Bridge, perhaps the most recognisable of all the London bridges, and sugar, easily the most famous sweetener of all time, have become the subject of an unlikely double-act.
Artist Michelle Wibowo has rebuilt the historic suspension bridge using 150 hours of her time and over 25kg of sugar, which is probably more than you’ll buy for your homes in the space of about 10 years (unless you’re perfecting your Great British Bake Off application).
While, shockingly, it’s still a damn sight smaller than the real thing, the sugar sculpture of Tower Bridge stands at an impressive 2.5ft, with Horace Jones’ original measuring in at nearly 100 times the size.
Still, the creation of the masterpiece didn’t involve fine granules so it’s on a knife edge as to whose design is the more impressive.
Where can I see the sugar model of Tower Bridge?
Michelle Wibowo’s Tower Bridge will go on display this Friday (September 8) as part of ‘The Kellogg’s Reductive Art Exhibition’. This is hitting both Paris and London this month, with eight works all commissioned to create work using salt and/or sugar.
On the artwork, you’ll see the intricately baked, sugar-sweet details of both towers and the open-air walkway, though, for obvious reasons, we won’t get to see the draw bridges go up on this one.
On top of the 25kg of sugar that went into the creation of this sweet Tower Bridge, the pieces at the exhibition go over 200kg when it comes to putting the amount of salt and sugar used on the kitchen scales.
Speaking about being involved in the exhibition, Wibowo said: “The idea of an exhibition comprising works made entirely out of salt and sugar sounded really exciting, so I jumped at the chance to create this piece for the show.
“It was really fascinating researching the design history around the Tower Bridge, which surprisingly isn’t as old as some people may think! I hope people will enjoy taking a closer look at the sculpture when they visit the show and spotting some of the details from the real bridge.”
You’ll be able to see the Tower Bridge sculpture and more for free at ‘The Kellogg’s Reductive Art Exhibition’ on September 8-9 at gallery@oxo (Oxo Tower Wharf, Barge House Street, SE1 9PH).