Cliftonville is a district striking for both the grandeur of its architecture and for the challenging social issues it has faced in the last thirty years. Thanet District Council gave the artist permission to use an empty property on Godwin Road in the Cliftonville area to create the artwork.
#Pics of bricksmith badge windows
As curving bricks, windows and doors slide into the front garden of a property that has been vacant for eleven years its upper interiors are revealed to the public below. Here's some more information from Alex Chinneck:įrom the knees of my nose to the belly of my toesīritish artist and designer Alex Chinneck has completed construction of his most ambitious installation to date after peeling the front of a four-storey house in Margate away from the rest of the building. Photographs are by Stephen O'Flaherty and the film is by Hazeleigh Prebble. There's also a student housing block hidden behind the facade of a historic brick warehouse, which has been named Britain's worst building of the year. If you like this, check out the Dalston House in east London, where a mirror reflects the facade of a house lying on the ground to give the illusion that visitors are standing on walls and window ledges. "I don't think it's a negative comment on society, it's just trying to give society a positive experience." "I like the contradiction of taking a subject that's dark or depressing or bleak, something like dereliction which suggests something quite negative socially but also aesthetically, and delivering a playful experience within that context," he explained. The artwork will remain in place for a year, before the building is converted for use as housing.Īlex Chinneck's work has often featured dilapidated buildings - past projects Dezeen has reported on include a factory near the Olympic park in east London with 312 identically smashed windows and a melting brick wall. The installation itself came together in just six weeks by assembling prefabricated panels. Everything was donated by ten different companies except the labour, which was done at cost and paid for buy the Arts Council. The designer initiated the project himself and spent twelve months convincing companies to help him realise the artwork.
#Pics of bricksmith badge series
It's positioned in a way that you don't see the artwork as you approach from either direction - you just see the hole in the top at first, so it's a series of discoveries and you have to walk around it." "I never put signs on my work and I never give it any labels, so it does have this sense of mystery. "I was drawn to Cliftonville because it's an area where the culture hasn't reached and I think public art too often forgets its responsibility to the public." "Cliftonville is a very poor area referred to as being 'up the hill', and the culture and the arrival of artists hasn't quite reached up the hill yet," he said. In addition to causing delight when residents happen upon his intervention, the designer hopes to will draw visitors up the hill from the centre of Margate, where high-profile projects like the Turner Contemporary gallery by David Chipperfield are using culture as a tool for regeneration. "It has social issues, it struggles with high levels of crime and the grand architecture has fallen into a fairly fatigued state," said Chinneck. "I didn't go into the project with that idea, but as it evolved I started to like that."Ĭliftonville is a district of Margate that used to be affluent, but like many seaside towns in the UK it has suffered with the changing patterns of holidaymakers. "I increasingly like that idea of exposing the truth and the notion of superficiality," he explained. His installation reveals this dilapidated interior where the smart new facade falls away from the top floor. "There were barely any floorboards, it's very fire-damaged at the back and water-damaged at the front, and had fallen into ruin," said the designer. Located on Godwin Road in the Cliftonville area of the town, the house had been acquired by the local council and earmarked for social housing, but nothing was due to happen to it for a year and the structure was in a dilapidated state. "I wanted to create something that used the simple pleasures of humour, illusion and theatre to create an artwork that can be understood and enjoyed by any onlooker." "I just feel this incredible desire to create spectacles," Chinneck told Dezeen.
British designer Alex Chinneck created the installation - called From the Knees of my Nose to the Belly of my Toes - by removing the facade of a detached four-storey house that had been derelict for eleven years and replacing it with a brand new frontage that leaves the crumbling top storey exposed, then curves outwards so the bottom section lies flat in front of the house.
0 kommentar(er)
