I am an experienced Artist working in Public Realm, Urban Regeneration and Healthcare environments for Local Authorities, NHS Trusts and the Private Sector.
I am a graduate of the Royal College of Art -
I work within diverse, multi-disciplinary project teams delivering major Capital Projects as well as smaller schemes funded entirely from charitable donations.
I have delivered projects in sensitive Healthcare environments such as Mental Health, Chemotherapy and Cancer working and liaising directly with all service users and clinical staff.
I offer clients multi-disciplinary skills ranging from contextual research to working with a diverse materials palette and have a broad knowledge of current practice in the built environment.
I propose to influence design processes and outcomes from the outset via contextual, site-specific research and collaborative consultation. My work focuses on place & identity, with particular emphasis on local vernacular and how this is preserved, exposed & expressed as a visual narrative, telling stories about context and place.
I am fascinated by the natural and man-made world. Geology, botany, species diversity, archaeology and astronomy: a continual enlightenment and am equally inspired by our collective human achievement in language, music, architecture - including our communities and the way we navigate & use our man-made space.
I would hope to contribute positively to your projects by bringing the minutiae of nature and human existence into focus and to reinterpret this on a larger, more visible scale, affirming the natural and human in what can sometimes be unnatural, de-humanised public spaces.
Christopher Tipping
2nd August 2014Gloucester, Massachusetts Went whale watching today out of Gloucester, Massachusetts with the Cape Anne Whale Watch on the Hurricane II – and despite the rain and cold (very untypical weather), saw two Humpback Whales feeding. This is the second time I have been whale watching. The first time 14 years ago on my honeymoon I saw zero whales , so this is a great success by comparison. No photos of the whales however – it was raining hard and my mobile may have ended up in the ocean – so I erred on caution and simply experienced the scene as it happened in real time & not through a lens – an experience I would recommend! It may not make for the most riveting images of the day, but I can assure you I had a great day.
Actually on the wildlife front I had a great day all round ! – my tally for today is:
Canton, MA Planning for the day ahead: 1. May go to downtown Boston to visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum as it is free today. 2. I wanted to get up and walk somewhere as I could really do with some exercise – but then breakfast was too good to give up… So I will keep you posted on some images if any of this comes off… Well – we did drive into Boston – fairly heavy traffic all the way – unfortunately, queues around the block for the museum (we should have known better !)- so we just kept on driving and came back to Canton. Maybe a 2 hour round trip, but being driven around is such a treat – even that was enjoyable. Now back home & it is really humid , so I went for a long walk in the midday sum like any likeminded Englishman ! So hot – so sweaty – so stupid. Such a headache! Domestic architecture around here is wonderfully evocative of an America seen via the TV and from my childhood…Adam’s Family, Bewitched, even Scooby Doo !
Nightingale Architects have made available some new images of the project at The Whiteleaf Centre, Aylesbury. This particular image is of the large meeting room in the resource centre. The digitally printed artwork manufactured by Guardian is applied to the glazing screen. When the sun is strong, this creates an additional and fleeting, ephemeral extension of the artwork cast in shadow upon the floor and adjacent walls.
Ashfield Ltd released some images of sample details for the York Stone steps with inset granite text. All looking very good & can’t wait to see a finished step. The text is in a mid grey honed granite. When wet this will become darker and much more of a contrast to the York Stone. Hopefully Ashfield will issue more images as the works progress.
A few more images of the installation of the ‘Canal Shore’ artwork and highway works have been issued by Balfour Beatty from the site of the Phase 1 Station Quarter North project in Southampton.
90 Independence Street, Canton, Boston, MA. First full day in the US. This will be a day to rest. Sat on the deck in very warm breeze watching blue jays, red cardinals and 3 tiny humming birds , amongst other things chasing about the garden. Such a treat to do nothing but watch and listen. There is also something quintessentially American about the sound of trains as they pass through in the distance. Went on a visit to one of Rose’s friends. They have a black painted swimming pool, which appears like indigo – inky dark. Wish we could have been swimming in it ! Then off to Old Navy to get Nell some flip flops. Something has been killing grey squirrels here too. Steve says that four of the things have been found in the garden recently. One was still there on the lawn last night when we arrived. This morning only the tail was still there. We had a great journey over this time. We travelled via Dublin, from Heathrow. The advantage was that we cleared US Customs and Immigration in Ireland, which meant that we came into Logan via domestic flights, which really sped things up and wasn’t nearly so nerve wracking as usual. Heathrow Terminal 2 was a dream. Hardly anyone around, brand new with really helpful staff. The best check-in experience ever. Richard Wilson’s new sculpture is equally impressive, Actually it is stunning and has an air, both of modernity and fluidity as well as referencing the glamour & physicality of early passenger flight.
GLAZING MANIFESTATION ARTWORKS TO THE ‘HEART OF THE CAMPUS’ BUILDING FOR SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY, COLLEGIATE CAMPUS .
DIGITALLY PRINTED WHITE INKS OVERLAIN IN OPAQUE & TRANSPARENT LAYERS ONTO OPTICALLY CLEAR VINYL .
Up to Sheffield to walk around site with Carly Birkett of VGL . I am developing the glazing manifestation artwork in collaboration with VGL and we have limited time to get this project developed and installed. As usual the project contractors, Graham Construction were really helpful on site and assisted in the process of taking all ‘as built’ measures of the glazing screens which will take the artwork.
The proposals for glazing manifestations is a continuation of the west elevation Rockpanel rains creen artwork, where cnc routed detailed drawings where been used to create a hard edged and graphic finish, dictated in part by its design influences in historic printmaking and metalworking in Sheffield and by the materials and methods of its own production. The manifestation artworks being are created using the same base visual language & influences developed & explored in the Rockpanel work. This proposal expands upon this concept to explore a softer more fluid application concerned with lightness, detail, transparency & opacity to create a balancing contrast to the dynamic geometry & scale of the building. ‘The designs are abstract & cloud-like, suggesting ephemeral objects, floating within the architectural space from the ground floor to the very top of the atrium roof. The interactions of the various patterns and forms, overlaying and meeting to create new shapes, details and transparencies suggest a coalescing of conversations, interactions, disciplines and dialogue. The exhalations & energy of everyone who may use this new building are manifest here’. The digitally printed vinyl manifestation is applied to the glazing directly which requires a lighter touch than the West Elevation artwork. The detail and narrative appear as if blown and drifted through the building. This project is a continuation, extension and elaboration of the recently completed West Elevation Rockpanel Rainscreen artwork, where cnc routed detail has been used to create a hard edged and graphic appearance, dictated in part by its origins in printmaking and metalworking and the materials and methods of its production. The original concept was developed as a contextual research document, which still stands as the concept driver for the project and is submitted for reference along with this presentation. ‘The manifestation artworks being proposed in draft form here are created from the same base visual language developed for the Rockpanel Rainscreen works of the west elevation, but expandsupon this concept to explore a softer more fluid application concerned with light, space & transparency to create a balancing contrast to the dynamic geometry of the building.
In December 2008 I was commissioned, along with a number of other artists, to respond to the Combe Down Stone Mines Stabilisation Project, which was nearing completion after a 10 year ambitious and ground-breaking engineering-led programme.
The Combe Down Stone Mines Project was a major project undertaken by Bath & North East Somerset Council to stabilise abandoned limestone mine workings in the village of Combe Down and preserve the Health & Safety of the area. The aim of the Project was to remove the current threat to life and property of those living, working in and travelling through the Combe Down area. Collapse of the old mines, which in some instances, lay just metres beneath the surface, was a real possibility. In doing this, the Project ensured that the internationally recognised heritage, wildlife and environmental properties of the area were conserved for future generations.
The Combe Down Stone Mines Stabilisation Project was finally completed in 2010, with 25 hectares of very shallow limestone mines flooded with approximately 600,000 cubic metres of foamed concrete, the largest project of its kind in the world. Over the preceding 200 years some 700 houses had been built over the mines from which the stone was extracted to build Georgian Bath.
The project site of Combe Down, a village on the outskirts of Bath, falls within the World Heritage Site of Bath.
The arts project team was managed and led by Art Consultants Frances Lordand Steve Geliot.“To celebrate the end of the Combe Down Stone Mines Stabilisation Project the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) granted £250K funding for commissioning public art. The Combe Down Public Art Project was the result of two years of activity, events, residencies and commissions”. Frances Lord
A 21st Century Miner greeting a 19th Century Stone Miner. Archaeologists found a single bone of the Hare whilst excavating & recording the stone mines – ‘probably someone’s lunch!’. The leek represents the 21st Century mine workers who mostly came from South Wales.
The installation work ‘1479 plates’, was exhibited at The Octagon, an 18th Century Chapel in Bath, and featured a map of 788 bone china dinner plates , which explores the relationship between present day engineering and mining technology, stone mines heritage, archaeology, natural history, and two 18th Century entrepreneurs of the English Enlightenment, Ralph Allen and Josiah Wedgwood. The work was created in collaboration with ‘Autonomatic’ – 3D Digital Research Cluster at University College Falmouth. The plates were displayed on a curving monolithic wall, redolent of the architectural terraces in Bath, built with the stone from the mines. The exhibition was constructed and managed by REM, Richmond Event Management.
The local community was widely consulted and was from the outset a supportive and creative project champions group, attending meetings and contributing significantly to the outcome of the works. I often stayed with local families, which was a very engaging way of collaborating away from the formal meetings and group sessions.
The image above is an A0 size print made to commemorate the project which has the names of all the Miners employed by Hydrock who worked on and contributed to the Combe Down Stone Mines Stabilisation Project. Printed by Digital Arte.
691 households affected by the stabilisation works were gifted a ceramic plate – one small part of the map – representing not only the individual household but the mining underworld beneath it. Following their display at The Octagon, the original 788 dinner plates were donated to form a large scale permanent installation in Combe Down village at some point in the future.
I made a site visit to the Heart of the Campus building along with Andrew Illingworth, Interior Designer for HLM Architects & Garry Farmer, Project Manager for Graham Construction, the main contractors on the project. Seen from Collegiate Crescent, the building is just visible behind the mature Beech trees.
I have been commissioned to extend the original brief for a cnc routed Rockpanel rainscreen on the West Elevation to include digitally printed vinyl manifestations for the East Elevation glazed curtain wall and interiors. This was an incredibly useful visit as the building has really moved forward since my last time here in January this year.
The interior atrium is three storeys high and filled with light. It is a dynamic architectural space which has as a centrepiece, a cantilevered cube projecting out from the first floor. When sunlight floods in via the fully glazed atrium roof, the whole building is suffused with light and shadows.
Whilst on site I couldn’t resist a quick look at the West Elevation Rockpanel ‘drawing’. This artwork is cnc routed into the rain screen panels & was manufactured by The Cutting Room in Huntingdon. The exposed base material, almost a bright yellow colour when first exposed, darkens in contact with sunlight and has now achieved its permanent shade. This is more subtle then when first installed, & has now blended in with its architectural setting. Up close, the detail is crisp and casts strong shadows on a sunny day.
The first drafts for the glazing manifestations were produced in January this year and use the same iconography as the West Elevation cnc work. The manifestations however, being digitally printed, have no need for hard edges and manageable cutting paths. The designs will work with transparency and light to achieve their results. Digital printing further allows for a range of softer and finer details to be introduced. This is what I am currently working on. The manifestations serve a distinct purpose and have to comply with building regulations. Beyond that, the artwork can develop in many original ways to drift through the building.
Work began to prepare the unit for the installation in March this year. What appears to be a simple case of ‘wallpapering’ a space couldn’t be further from the truth within an environment such as this. Sensitivity to the treatments being carried out within the unit is paramount. The ongoing quality and appearance of the DTU must be considered, even during renovations and repair works. As this is a day treatment unit, weekend working for the specialist contractors from VGL is the only option. This means that the project has to be undertaken over a number of consecutive weekends, which appears to extend the project for longer than it really warrants.
The following images show the first area to be installed. These are not finished images as further works are due to make good the final positioning of furniture and fittings etc.
Many people make up the wider project team. They have to be consulted and become involved to enable the works to happen. This is time consuming stuff and I am so grateful to Ruth Charity, the Arts Co-ordinator for the Oxford University Hospital NHS Trust who has steered this project since the outset, through its fair share of stormy weather ! The staff particularly have been patient and encouraging throughout.