Channel 4 brings its logo to life to launch Big Art in 2008

A 48 foot-high steel ‘4’ is being constructed on the steps of the channel’s headquarters in Horseferry Road, London. The Big 4 will be unveiled by the Arts Minister Margaret Hodge at the official unveiling on Tuesday - 16th October at 11:15am.

The towering installation, designed by Freestate, in conjunction with award-winning engineers, Atelier One, will mirror the channel’s award-winning idents with steel bars forming the instantly recognisable ‘4’ logo only when viewed from a certain angle.

The work coincides with a major television series on public art and art in the built environment, the Big Art Project (www.channel4.com/bigart), which comes to Channel 4 screens in 2008. Four artists over the course of 12 months will customise the Big 4 starting with Nick Knight one of Britain's most innovative and influential photographers, Mark Titchner, shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2006 and celebrated Ghanaian sculptor El-Anatsui. The fourth artist will be the winner of a competition open to young arts graduates, run in conjunction with the Saatchi Gallery.

The artists invited to design the Big 4 were selected by a committee of arts experts, made up of Jan Younghusband – Channel 4 Commissioning Editor, Arts & Performance; Brett Foraker - Network Creative Director, Channel 4; Gus Casely-Hayford - Executive Director, Arts Strategy, Arts Council; Michael Morris - Co-Director, Artangel;  Will Gompertz - Director, Tate Media and  Tim Marlow - Director of Exhibitions, White Cube Gallery.

The Big 4 Art Project is the first time the broadcaster has commissioned art for outside its headquarters, which was opened in 1994 and built by the Richard Rodgers Partnership.