I was commissioned by the Chancery Rosewood Hotel to create a body of work to be part of their 700 artwork collection housed in the iconic ex US embassy on Grosvenor Square. The collection curated by Cramer and Bell, with the interior designers: Joseph Dirand, Albion Nord, Avroko Sagrada & Yabu Pushelberg and the Architect for the project were David Chipperfield Architects.
I created 2 major series which included These Are Wilde – a homage to Oscar Wilde in the central location of the hotel and Stained Glass Windows, which encompassed 8 original works translated into editions that were all hand gilded in 24K gold for every suite of the hotel.
These Are Wilde
The Grosvenor Square address in the heart of Mayfair was the starting point for this commission by looking at famous people who lived in the neighbourhood, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Oscar Wilde lived on the square in 1883. I was instantly drawn to creating a homage to Wilde by creating figurative collage and cutout works that were theatrical, whimsical and full of joy celebrating this great individual.
I started by cutting Savile Row bespoke brown paper suit patterns that became the canvases of the suite of 20 individual panel works. I then researched into Victorian tailoring pattern books which was the height of England’s hold on menswear tailoring. And I found some lovely illustrations of Victorian men in gentlemanly embrace, and I lifted them to tell Wilde’s story. Decorative papers from all around the world including England, India, Nepal, and Japan were used to decorate the figures, and gilding techniques using gold, silver and metal leaf were also used to give a slight shimmer to the works. I also used images of birds to complete the artworks as if Oscar is walking through the square and having conversations with them; telling them until stories. When the artworks were completed I wanted the works to carry with them history of menswear, theatre and resonant the illustrious character of Mayfair.
Stained Glass Windows
The starting point of the Stained Glass series was creating a large panel of carefully attached components of the Savile Row bespoke brown paper suit patterns of jackets, trousers and other menswear clothing. The tailors’ pencil, chalk marks and annotations all became integral parts of the cut out works. I then printed my compositions onto these build canvases and then painstakingly cut into them creating a thin delicate stained glass window like layer and placed them into beautifully hand made papers. The final stage of the commission was to choose careful geometric sections to gills in 24K gold so the artwork shimmers in the same way as when light flows through a stained glass window. The brown of the pattern with the various intervention look like paper tapestries set beautifully in the interiors of the wood paneling of the hotel.
For more about the project visit.
