Scottish village split over arrival of six-metre modern sculpture bought by millionaire art dealers

The work of art by Indian artist Subodh Gupta has divided opinion in Braemar after it was installed by millionaire art dealers Iwan and Manuela Wirth outside their latest hotel.

A six-metre sculpture that was commissioned for the Victoria & Albert Museum in London has found a new home in Braemar with residents split over the new work of art that now greets visitors to the village.

When Soak Becomes Spill was completed for the V&A’s India Festival in 2015 and features a large stainless-steel bucket overflowing with hundreds of pots, containers and cooking utensils in a comment about society’s waste of natural resources.

It has been placed on a plinth outside the Invercauld Arms, a vacant hotel at the entrance to the village which has been bought over by Iwan and Manuela Wirth. The art dealers and collectors own the village’s five star Fife Arms which has become famed for its art and sculpture collection, which includes works from artists including Pablo Picasso and Lucian Freud.

The sculpture - When Soak Becomes Still by Subodh Gupta - outside the Invercauld Arms in Braemar. PIC: Contributed.

The couple plan to install further artworks at the Invercauld, which is currently being refurbished and due to re-open in 2025, with planning permission now sought for the plinth where the Gupta sculpture now stands.

Councillor Geva Blackett, independent councillor for Aboyne, Upper Deeside & Donside, said she thought the sculpture was “great” but added the reaction was mixed in the village.

She said "Some people love it and some people hate it but that is what art is about. It is challenging .

"How many villages have something like this sculpture as an entrance? It is a huge statement. I think it is great and it is a reminder about waste that is going on in the world.

The six-metre tall sculpture, which stands at the entrance to Braemar, has divided opinion in the village. PIC: Contributed.

"Some people have said they can't stand it, they say it is horrible and it doesn’t belong here, there have been all sorts of negative comments. Everyone is entitled to their view and you don’t have to like every art work.

"Yes, it is very different for Braemar but that doesn’t make it wrong. Sometimes a designer doing a room will put something in that clashes because it is too contrived otherwise.”

A statement from Artfarm Ltd, the independent hospitality and development company co-founded and owned by Manuela and Iwan Wirth, co-founders of internationally acclaimed art gallery Hauser & Wirth, said it hoped to display artworks on the plinth on a “rotational basis”.

The statement, which has been lodged with planners at Aberdeenshire Council, said: “Placing artworks on the plinth will provide link between the hotel’s romanticised highland style and the current movements of today. In doing so the proposal effectively reinforces the ties between a modern world and it’s past, a key aspect developed throughout the site.”

It said the proposed plinth and associated artworks radiated a “sense of evolution” in the hotel, which partly sits on the spot where the Jacobite standard was raised at the beginning of the 1715 Rising. The hotel was later extended in the 19th Century.

The Wirths have created a number of programmes to bring art and Braemar together, with the Gupta scultpure now included on a trail of artworks placed around the village.

The statement added that the artwork will provide a “striking impact when approaching the hotel, attracting and intriguing visitors to the area”.