Rasheed Araeen Sculpture Debuts in London at The Line

Conversation Rasheed Araeen Stephanie Bailey

Across the U.K. capital this week, citygoers can enjoy various celebrations of public sculpture, as the fourth edition of the annual London Sculpture Week is open from now until Sunday.

One particular highlight is the launch of Untitled The Line, a new public work by British Minimalist sculptor Rasheed Araeen.

This site-specific work features the artist’s signature diagonally supported open cubes, built from painted steel and drawing on Araeen’s roots as a civil engineer in Karachi, Pakistan, before his move to London in the 1960s. The multicoloured geometric sculpture can now be seen at Bromley-by-Bow, a neighbourhood in East London, as part of the public art trail The Line.

Untitled The Line was commissioned to celebrate the eponymous public art initiative’s tenth anniversary. Founded in 2015, The Line aims to democratise access to art through free outdoor exhibitions across East London’s waterways, building on the regenerative momentum of the city’s Olympics in 2012. Araeen’s installation joins those by Helen Cammock, Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor, Carsten Höller, Virginia Overton, and many other major names in contemporary sculpture.

‘We are excited to welcome back Rasheed Araeen, whose performance work Discosailing was presented on The Line in 2024,’ said Sarah Carrington, who became The Line’s director earlier this year after co-founder Megan Piper stepped down.

London Sculpture Week also features events across four additional major public art initiatives—Frieze Sculpture, Sculpture in the City, the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, and the East Bank, a new culture and education quarter in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Curator of Frieze Sculpture Fatoş Üstek said that these collaborations ‘not only enrich our cultural landscape but also reinforce London’s reputation as a vibrant hub for public art, fostering dialogue, creativity, and connection within the shared spaces of our city’.

This year’s Frieze Sculpture exhibition, entitled In the Shadows, can be viewed in Regent’s Park until 2 November. London Sculpture Week, however, will conclude this Sunday with an interactive durational performance by British sculptor Simon Hitchens at Frieze Sculpture from sunrise to sunset. —[O]

Main image: Rasheed Araeen, Untitled The Line (2025) (detail). Courtesy The Line, London. Photo: Angus Mill.