Modus Operandi project highlights
Date uploaded: January 26, 2015
In 2014 Modus Operandi completed 15 years of commissioning new art for public environments and architecture. Over 100 permanent and temporary projects have been commissioned since the organisation’s foundation in July of 1999; with a further 16 projects currently in progress.
Highlights over the past year include:
'Shimmy' by Alison Wilding RA: a new sculpture for The Crown Estate, W1
Alison Wilding was commissioned to create a permanent artwork for the interior reception area of a new development - 10 New Burlington Street, London, W1- located along Regent Street. Shimmy is fabricated from 400 individual strips of mirror-polished stainless steel, and contains 28 coloured acrylic spheres caught in the uppermost layers of the sculpture.
Radcliffe Observatory Quarter (ROQ) University of Oxford
Modus Operandi leads the Public Art Programme for the ROQ and projects to date include a temporary light commission by Susan Collins. The Alchemical Tree proposal by Simon Periton, Site-wide Artist, gained planning permission from Oxford City Council in June and is now in production.
Further commissions for the ROQ are planned, including an artwork that commemorates those who worked in the Radcliffe Infirmary; a commission by Antoni Malinowski for the Mathematical Institute and commissions for the Blavatnik School of Government’s public realm.
The Social Canvas, Sri Lanka: Symposium & Interdisciplinary Workshops
In July 2014 the British Council invited Modus Operandi’s director Vivien Lovell to head a symposium on public art (held on that most public of sites – a beach) and lead a series of interdisciplinary workshops for artists and other creatives, working towards proposals for designated locations in Colombo. The project culminated in presentations to corporate sector sponsors and recommendations for a selection of projects to be taken forward.
Uppingham School, Rutland: Commission by Daniel Sturgis
Destination Science, a new building designed by ORMS Architects, formed the context for an integrated art commission in the atrium. Daniel Sturgis’ designs, incorporated across the triple height space, comprise a series of perforated panels set out in a crenulated form to respond to the Foucault's pendulum suspended in the atrium. The building and artwork were inaugurated in November 2014.
In 2015 Modus Operandi continues its work with major projects including:
Visualisation of Westgate, Dixon Jones Architects
Modus Operandi was appointed in September 2014 to lead the art programme for the new Westgate Centre in Oxford for developer Land Securities. The art plan is currently in production, following consultation with the masterplanners BDP and architects Dixon Jones, Allies & Morrison, Glenn Howells Architects, Panter Hudspith, landscape architects Gillespies, Oxford County Library Services, Oxford City Council and key stakeholders. Permanent and temporary art will be commissioned. The Centre’s location next to Modern Art Oxford may lead to collaborative projects.
St John's College, Oxford: Permanent Commission
For the College’s new Library extension & Study Centre, designed by Wright & Wright Architects, Modus Operandi is advising on an invited competition for a permanent commission that charts the history of the College in an innovative way. This is the third occasion in 22 years that Vivien Lovell has advised the College on artists’ commissions; previous schemes include the Garden Quadrangle and the Kendrew Quadrangle with artworks by Langlands & Bell, Ian Monroe, Alexander Beleschenko and Wendy Ramshaw.
Portsmouth Historic Dockyard
Modus Operandi, with Eric Parry Architects, is advising the Historic Naval Base Trust on an invited competition for architectural practices/artists to design the hard landscaping/public realm, with scope for integrated art as a key element of the brief. Caruso St John, DSDHA and Latz and Co have been appointed and are currently selecting artists, advised by Modus Operandi.
Keith Tyson, New Burlington Place, W1
Keith Tyson is creating the artwork for the exterior wall of a new building, W1, designed by AHMM for The Crown Estate. Tyson’s technique for his ‘nature paintings’, which use gravity and chemical reactions to create various complex, flowing forms, will be the starting point for a long horizontal artwork comprising maps of the Thames from the last 1000 years.
Eleanor Lines, Sherwood Street, W1
Eleanor Lines’ work forms the ground floor entrance façade of the building, refurbished by AHMM for The Crown Estate. Her proposal draws upon the designs of this 1930s building, incorporating a Mayan pattern.
Taking this motif as a starting point, the artwork pattern creates an illusion of expansion and contraction in scale, forming a sense of rhythm and movement within the metalwork screens.
Giulia Ricci, Air Street, W1
Giulia Ricci has conceived an artwork, The Grammar of Orientation, to be embedded within the exterior bronze panel door fins and reception desk for the entrance lobby of The Crown Estate's development on Air Street, named Quadrant 2 and refurbished by Barr Gazetas Architects. The artwork is rooted in the identity and shape of the building, where the repetitive shape of a ‘quadrant’ follows a series of permutations using a sequence that has a narrative development based on a 90 degrees rotation.
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