Pan troglodytes, Pongo pygmaeus and Gorilla gorilla
Pan troglodytes, Pongo pygmaeus, and Gorilla gorilla
Category Archives: Education
Covers all projects which involve either educational institutions such as schools, colleges and universities.
Royal College of Art – Terrazzo Floor
‘Celebrating Pattern in London’s Architecture’.
‘Frieze collaborates with Tate Britain, the National Gallery, RCA, Sketch Gallery and ICA on the 2017 marketing campaign. From contemporary concepts to Renaissance painting, we have worked with important cultural institutions to create the campaigns for Frieze London and Frieze Masters 2017. Showcasing striking design and beautiful floors around London. Photography by Luke Hayes with Art Direction by Amy Preston’. Frieze London 2017.
I was delighted to see my work featured in the Frieze London 2017 Marketing Campaign. My in-situ polychrome terrazzo and cut marble floor was quietly celebrating it’s 30th Anniversary in 2017, since it was commissioned by the RCA for the main entrance and reception of the new Darwin Building in 1987. The work was manufactured and installed by Diespeker & Co. I worked closely throughout in collaboration with Diespeker’s and the RCA. As stated – I was surprised and delighted to see it featured again in this way.
I recently made contact with the Photographer Luke Hayes to enquire about any other images he may have of the work, which didn’t make the original campaign. He has generously allowed me access to these images, which I reproduce here with his kind permission. I have very few images myself – and no digital images – and appear to have very little by way of documentation. I graduated from the RCA in 1985 and I think I was commissioned whilst I was still a post-grad student in Ceramics. This makes some sense, as the design for the floor was very much an extension of the work I was doing in ceramics, which was focussed on Architectural form and decoration. I was pretty amazed to see it was still in such good condition. Terrazzo is an amazing material and I have used it- rather sporadically I admit – throughout my career and had the pleasure of working alongside some amazing craftspeople at Diespeker’s and Pallam Precast, now part of Quality Marble.
Above: From what I can recall, this (poor quality) image was taken just after the final grinding & completion of the floor by Diespeker’s. It hadn’t been cleaned or polished and was very dusty – just like me in the image.
Between 1985 / 87 during the delivery of this project, I had no access to digital processes or computers – although they had recently started to appear at the RCA. The original artwork was hand drawn and painted in gouache. Templates for the timber formwork were first drawn up full scale and processed in the RCA’s timber workshops on Jay Mews. I suppose what it did, was reinforce the hand made and craft process associated with the manufacture of the work. I do remember sanding off the tip of one of my fingers in the workshop. I had so little money in those post student days, that I also recall walking all the way from Terrazzo manufacturer Diespeker’s old premises at Diespeker Wharf Wharf, Islington, back to my old studio at Loughborough Junction on Coldharbour Lane, South London, carrying a pile of terrazzo samples.
Below: Really interesting to work briefly with Luke’s images to re-imagine some new designs for the same floor. Digital processes we have instantly available in minutes today would have taken me days to produce similar painted patterns in 1987.
Tipping’s Tiny Zoo, Jacob’s Ladder, Ramsgate.
Red Deer on Jacob’s Ladder, Military Road, Ramsgate. Animal Thanet 2019
‘Jacob’s Ladder is a Grade II Listed flight of stone steps. Built in 1826 by John Shaw. Dog-leg stairs with three flights of steps faced with ashlar and built between flanking towers with rounded fronts of ashlar, each flight of steps with wide central pilaster; centre landings. Iron balustrade. The present stair replaces an earlier wooden flight of c.1750, 100 yards to the east’. Historic England.
Red Deer, Cervus elaphus with local flora.
Heart of the Campus, Sheffield University Collegiate Campus
Just over four years ago we completed the project at Sheffield Hallam Collegiate Campus.
Although I took a fair number of images at the time of the glazing manifestations, which were applied to the East elevation glazed curtain walls, I focussed on the interior images only.
I had no decent images of the external elevations with the artwork completed.
I recently got in touch with the Photographer Lisa Daniels, who made some wonderful images of the building having been commissioned to record the external landscapes by the project architects HLM.
She has let me have access to this great image.
Stumped: Elephants on Dumpton Park Drive – Animal Thanet 2019
Stumped: Elephant herd marooned on Dumpton Park Drive
These images are part of the ongoing Animal Thanet project and installation / performance, which considers & reflects wider concerns I have for the natural world, particularly focussed on the lives of its wild animals, conservation, loss of habitat, diminishing numbers, poaching, trophy hunting, extinction and callous exploitation, which holds a mirror to our humanity. We may soon only have plastic versions of our wild neighbours to play with. The last decade has witnessed the slow & horrible realisation that our negative impact on the planet and particularly our plastic pollution of almost every environment, is a real-time catastrophe for the world around us.
A recently removed tree provides a stump as a refuge and island platform for these Elephants marooned above the pavement on Dumpton Park Drive. Habitat loss is a major issue in Elephant conservation. Human population growth means encroachment on wildlife. Loss of trees and forests leaves space for wildlife diminished and in smaller and smaller pockets or ‘island’ reserves. EleAid
Crocodiles on Elms Avenue – Animal Thanet 2019
A haul-out of Nile Crocodiles – Crocodylus niloticus on Elms Avenue, Ramsgate.
These images are part of the ongoing Animal Thanet project and installation / performance, which considers & reflects wider concerns I have for the natural world, particularly focussed on the lives of its wild animals, conservation, loss of habitat, diminishing numbers, poaching, trophy hunting, extinction and callous exploitation, which holds a mirror to our humanity. We may soon only have plastic versions of our wild neighbours to play with. The last decade has witnessed the slow & horrible realisation that our negative impact on the planet and particularly our plastic pollution of almost every environment, is a real-time catastrophe for the world around us.
Above: Crocodiles haul out by a rainwater pool caught in the tarpaulin of a trailer parked on Elms Avenue.
Herne Bay to Birchington – Animal Thanet 2019
A walk from Herne Bay to Birchington at Low Tide with two Arabian Oryx and an African Elephant – February 2019
These images are part of the ongoing Animal Thanet project and installation / performance, which considers & reflects wider concerns I have for the natural world, particularly focussed on the lives of its wild animals, conservation, loss of habitat, diminishing numbers, poaching, trophy hunting, extinction and callous exploitation, which holds a mirror to our humanity. We may soon only have plastic versions of our wild neighbours to play with. The last decade has witnessed the slow & horrible realisation that our negative impact on the planet and particularly our plastic pollution of almost every environment, is a real-time catastrophe for the world around us.
Above: Arabian Oryx – Oryx leucoryx at Herne Bay
Above: African Elephant – L. africana at Herne Bay
Above: Views towards Reculver.
Above & Below: Oryx at Minnis Bay
Above & Below: Small tidal sea bathing pool at Minnis Bay
Herded – Animal Thanet 2018
My Garden … May 2018
These images consider & reflect wider concerns for the natural world, particularly focussed on the lives of its wild animals, conservation, loss of habitat, diminishing numbers, poaching, extinction and callous exploitation, which holds a mirror to our humanity. We may soon only have plastic versions of our wild neighbours to play with. The last decade has witnessed the slow & horrible realisation that our negative impact on the planet and particularly our plastic pollution of almost every environment, is a catastrophe for the world around us.
Animal Thanet – Pegwell Safari
In 2011, I took a series of Animal Thanet images entitled Pegwell Safari – down on the abandoned concrete apron of the former Pegwell Bay Hoverport at Pegwell Bay, Thanet. These images formed part of a postal art project.
Some of the images show the cooling towers & chimney of the former Richborough Power Station, which were demolished by explosives at 09.07am on 11th March 2012.
These images consider & reflect wider concerns for the natural world, particularly focussed on the lives of its wild animals, conservation, loss of habitat, diminishing numbers, poaching, extinction and callous exploitation, which holds a mirror to our humanity. We may soon only have plastic versions of our wild neighbours to play with. The last decade has witnessed the slow & horrible realisation that our negative impact on the planet and particularly our plastic pollution of almost every environment, is a catastrophe for the world around us.
In March 2011 a Sperm Whale beached and died at Pegwell Bay. I remember running along the beach at low tide all the way from Ramsgate to see it. A whale necropsy was carried out the following day, which was astonishing to see.
Other images were taken earlier in April 2008, of plastic animals from my collection at various sites in Ramsgate and along Ramsgate Main Sands and the Thanet Coast –
Trans Europa Cross Channel Ferries were still running out from Ramsgate to Ostend at this time –
CHATHAM UP – Ideas for Magazine layout –
