Playful sculptures spark curiosity and connection in the garden landscape.
Newer to Tremenheere are the strikingly bold Peeps sculptures by artist Alice Irwin. Standing brightly against the subtropical planting, these painted steel figures invite curiosity and connection, their vivid colours and simplified shapes creating a sense of playfulness in the landscape.
Alice Irwin’s practice spans printmaking and sculpture, with a particular interest in how childhood games, playgrounds, and memory shape our adult sense of imagination and interaction. Graduating with an MA in Printmaking from the Royal College of Art in 2018, she has gone on to exhibit widely, from Yorkshire Sculpture Park to Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery, where her playful figures have captured audiences of all ages.
The Peeps series has become a distinctive part of her practice. Their forms are both familiar and abstract – simplified human-like silhouettes rendered in bold hues such as pink, orange, and blue. These works carry an immediate sense of joy and openness, yet on closer reflection, they touch on deeper themes of memory, belonging, and the ways we connect.
Irwin often describes her sculptures as creating opportunities for interaction: viewers see themselves reflected in the shapes, or feel drawn into the figures’ implied personalities and gestures. The effect is part sculpture, part playground; art that doesn’t just sit in the landscape but sparks encounters, conversations, and sometimes laughter.
Here at Tremenheere, the Peeps take on a new dimension. Set among palms, granite boulders and the Cornish sky, they offer a striking contrast between the organic and the constructed, the ancient and the contemporary. Perched high on the hillside, with sweeping views across Carbis Bay and St Michael’s Mount, their bright, simplified forms stand in dialogue with the tropical planting around them, reminding us how much joy and surprise can be found in seeing the world through playful eyes.
“Tremenheere is a special place for me, a beautiful space for reflection. With Peeps, I hope to bring people together, encouraging them to pause, reflect, and enjoy what’s around them.” – Alice Irwin.
With her background in both print and sculpture, Alice Irwin’s work blurs the line between two and three dimensions, between image and object. The Peeps are a continuation of this enquiry: bold outlines turned into physical form, bridging the space between drawing, print, and sculpture.
Visitors to the gardens will find these vibrant characters waiting to be discovered; playful presences encouraging us to pause, smile, and perhaps remember the imaginative freedom of childhood.
Discover More in the Gallery
To mark the recent arrival of Alice Irwin’s Peep series in the Sculpture Gardens, Tremenheere Gallery is presenting a special exhibition of the artist’s printed works in the lower gallery studio room.
Bringing together a selection of prints created between 2022 and 2024, the exhibition offers a fascinating insight into the development of Irwin’s distinctive visual language during the same period in which she was creating the Peep sculptures. Visitors can trace the recurring shapes, bold colours and playful forms that flow between print and sculpture, revealing how ideas evolve across different mediums.
Presented in collaboration with Gillian Jason Gallery, the exhibition complements the outdoor installation, inviting visitors to experience Alice Irwin’s work from a fresh perspective before heading back into the gardens to encounter the Peeps amongst the subtropical landscape.
The exhibition runs from 30 June to 25 July 2026 in the Tremenheere Gallery, with all works available to purchase.
