‘Across the Buildings’ by Felice Varini
Date uploaded: May 13, 2013
Something big is happening at Granary Square. A number of giant geometric shapes have appeared on the facades of nine Victorian buildings around Granary Square. The buildings have become the canvas for a new art installation, Across the Buildings by the Swiss artist Felice Varini.
At street level, the shapes seem to be randomly placed. But find your way to an observation point at the junction of King’s Boulevard and Goods Way, and the geometric forms magically come together. It is only from this point that you can see the complete picture.
Across the Buildings is the third part of RELAY, the public art program at King’s Cross. The installation will run from May until October 2013. RELAY is curated by Michael Pinsky and Stéphanie Delcroix.
About the work: The stenciling of this colossal artwork took place over five days. At night, Varini projected his image onto the buildings with a vast PIGI camera, specially transported from France. A team of assistants then traced around the projected shapes with china pen. Reflective tape was cut to fit the outlined stenciled forms and fixed onto the surfaces.
About the artist: Varini is a Swiss born artist working from Paris. For over thirty years, he has been creating remarkable anamorphic installations around the world. This is his first major commission in England.
Varini intervenes with space and our perception of built environments. He typically paints on architectural and urban spaces, such as buildings, walls and streets. In more recent works, he has started to use self-adhesive foil tape which is applied to the building surface and can create playful effects with light and texture.
