Giant slides to return at gallery

The giant spiralling slides which proved a huge hit at Tate Modern are returning to London's South Bank.

Conceptual artist Carsten Holler installed slides - which caused several injuries - at the former power station's Turbine Hall in 2006.

Now visitors will be able to descend from the Hayward Gallery's glass pyramid ceiling to its entrance level on one of two 15-metre high slides commissioned especially for an exhibition opening later this year.

Built into the gallery's exterior wall, the slides will "constitute a graceful sculptural installation" while also being a device for "experiencing an emotional state that is a unique condition somewhere between delight and madness", the artist said.

The show - Carsten Holler: Decision - will also feature Flying Machines, which will be installed on one of the Hayward's outdoor terraces.

It will give visitors the sensation of "lifting off" and soaring above Waterloo Bridge opposite.

A new work, Moving Beds, will feature two robotic beds which "mirror each other's movements as they roam the galleries".

The show, one of the highlights of the Southbank Centre's summer programme, will also include a large installation of the Belgian-born artist's signature creation, fly agaric mushrooms.

Pill Clock (2011-15) is comprised of a ceiling-mounted timepiece that will drop over one million pills on to the gallery floor during the course of the exhibition, with a drinking fountain for visitors who decide to take one of the pills.

Hayward Gallery director and exhibition curator Ralph Rugoff said: "Carsten Holler is truly one of the world's most thought-provoking and profoundly playful artists, with a sharp and mischievous intelligence bent on turning our 'normal' view of things upside down."

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Giant slides to return at gallery