These commanding figures are by acclaimed South African artist, Deborah Bell, they are part of a series of nine sentinels that she made some 20 years ago. Drawing inspiration from columnar figures and statuary which she was researching during this period, Bell was reminded of Gothic imagery of saints, prophets, kings and queens and of ancient hermae placed at crossings and boundaries to ward off evil. Bell imagines her Sentinels as guardians, observers, occupying a place of stillness and reflection.

Deborah Bell has long been fascinated by ancient civilisations and their excavated artefacts. Her work incorporates symbolic and iconographic references of past and present worlds. Through it, Bell explores the boundaries between mortality and immortality, matter and spirit, presence and absence, the quotidian and the mythic, the grounded and the transcendent.

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These statues are free to view with a standard admission ticket to Chelsea Physic Garden. Book below.

Photo credit : Sacha Peers