Wednesday, 27 February 2013

Richard Deacon commission forms part of Piccadilly development in London

The Eagle Place development at St James's (showing the artwork in red)

A new glazed terracotta cornice by sculptor Richard Deacon (b.1949) will soon be revealed on the facade of a major new development in Piccadilly, London. 



Deacon, who won the Turner Prize in 1987, was commissioned to work with Eric Parry Architects (who were responsible for the recent lauded extension to the Holburne Museum in Bath) on the work for Eagle House on the St James's Gateway scheme.

The artwork is 25 metres long and consists of 39 glazed terracotta pieces.


Map of faience facade elements

According to Will Mclean in an article on the Architectural Review website, 
'As a sculptor acquainted with the deft manipulation of matter, Deacon studied and has remade the cornice as a ‘chopped up’ performance of 14 variable prismatic forms, each mutated from a single genotypic cross-section, but confined in height, or what Parry described as ‘the field of play’ to a not inconsiderable 1200mm. In addition, each of these 39 sculptures, extending over 25m, is highly coloured with facsimiles of Deacon’s painting using screen-printed waterslide transfers (decals) in a process originally invented for the pottery industry; each facet of the cornice blocks is differently coloured, further emphasising the geometric transformations.'


The artist checks the waterslide transfers


The artwork is due to be unveiled in March 2013. Look forward to seeing it.

You can read the article (which focuses on the technical side of working with terracotta) here:
http://www.architectural-review.com/recasting-terracotta/8630667.article

There is an article about the project on the Evening Standard website here:
http://www.standard.co.uk/business/business-news/st-jamess-soon-to-reveal-its-new-deacon-8496801.html

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