300 metre long painting unveiled at Canary Wharf
Date uploaded: October 10, 2012
300 metre long painting unveiled at Canary Wharf
A new 300m long painting has been revealed at Canary Wharf. Titled A Beautiful Sunset Mistaken for a Dawn by artist Sinta Tantra, the art work spans both sides of the 150m long DLR Bridge in the middle of the world famous business and shopping district in central London.
The work has been commissioned by Canary Wharf Group and has been implemented under the management of Canary Wharf Contractors by Serco, which operates the DLR, and their painting contractors Alfred Bagnall & Sons (North West) Ltd, who worked closely with the artist to realise her scheme. Over 65 painters from Alfred Bagnall & Sons worked on the project, applying over 5,000 litres of paint in seven different colours. The equivalent of over 3km of specialist masking tape was used to achieve the crisp, sharp edges on the straight lines and curves.
Sinta Tantra's inspiration for the painting was gained through close attention to the Canary Wharf environment, including the natural elements, ever-changing light and the towering buildings, as well as observing how people interact with the place. A number of the shapes reflect the surrounding architecture, for example curves on the adjacent Thomson Reuters office building.
Tantra recorded a 24 hour time lapse sequence that showed the sunset and sunrise over the bridge. The palette echoes this study: blues and greys that work well during the daytime and purples and pinks that work well at night-time. Other inspiration for the colour scheme included research she has done on ‘English Dandyism’ - tailoring and suits of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries - and tropical sunsets in Bali.
Later in the year, a lighting scheme designed by Lighting Design International will be installed beneath the bridge to complete this immense work of art. The artwork will come to life at night with changing LED light projectors mounted to the underside of the bridge. The projectors will wash soft light from each end of the bridge, subtlety blending complementary colours and slowly changing from early to late evening and different times of year.
The new commission joins Canary Wharf Group’s award-winning collection of over 60 free-to-view works of art and design, which helped the Group win the Christie’s Award for the Best Corporate Art Collections and Programmes in the International Art and Work Awards in 2010. The new art work will be included on the Canary Wharf’s Public Art Map, available for download here.
Sinta Tantra, Artist said: “Time and space forms a peculiar concept in our modern world today. There is the working day, our relationship to technology juxtaposed with the nature and universe at large.
Through the use of colour, scale and geometry, I wanted to create a painting which engaged the viewer at different times of the day and different times of the year; a piece of work which made you think about the surrounding architecture, the natural landscape and how we as bodies move along, around, above and beneath.”
Sally Williams, public art consultant at Canary Wharf Group plc said: “This is a superb piece of art that reflects and enhances the surrounding architecture and environment. It has transformed a relatively ordinary looking rail bridge, which predates Canary Wharf, into something that befits the impressive setting. We are very pleased to have the painting finished in time for London 2012. I can’t praise Sinta Tantra, Serco and the team at Alfred Bagnall and Sons highly enough for what they have achieved. I encourage art-loving Londoners to come to Canary Wharf and take a look.”
Head of Development and Planning at DLR, Rob Niven, said: “We are pleased to be able to help with this project which has improved the public space and helps to highlight DLR’s key place in it. It is an excellent example of how public and private sector organisations can work together for the improvement of public areas.”
The work is part of a wider planned maintenance project by SERCO to paint the DLR Docks Crossing Viaduct bridges from West India Quay.
About Sinta Tantra
Sinta Tantra is a British artist of Balinese heritage, born in New York in 1979. She studied in London at the Slade School of Fine Art and the Royal Academy of Arts, and following her final year she exhibited at Canary Wharf as part of the exhibition 'Twelve 2 One: Students of the Royal Academy Schools' in 2007. She was awarded the prestigious Deutsche Bank Award in Fine Art in 2006 and was shortlisted for the Jerwood Contemporary Painting Prize UK in 2010. She has exhibited widely and her work has been acquired by the UK Government Art Collection. Among public commissions are works undertaken for the London Borough of Camden (2007) and the Royal Festival Hall (2008). Her most recent commission is a work with Open Eye Gallery for the Liverpool Biennial 2012, due to take place in September.
For further information see: www.sintatantra.com
