Miner On The Moon

source: dezeen

This London building appears to have been turned on its head, but it’s actually an installation created by Hackney artist Alex Chinneck.

Alex Chinneck, whose previous projects include a house with a slumped down facade and a melting brick wall, constructed a new facade for a former livery stables in Southwark to make the building look like it has been turned upside down.

Entitled Miner on the Moon, the project takes over a structure that was first built in the 1780s as a storage facility for horses and carriages, but until recently had been left as an empty shell with a colourless facade and boarded-up windows.

“I was interested by how the architectural silhouette of the building had been created with this function in mind and I wanted to conceive a concept that responded to this shape and the building’s history,” said Chinneck.

The artist followed the proportions of the existing facade for the design of the new elevation, creating a shopfront, doors and windows that are all the wrong way round.

A fake materials palette of brickwork and white plaster is provided by brick slips – a kind of flattened brick – and rendered polystyrene. Chinneck also added an enamel sign from a company founded nearby in 1876.

“After being dissolved in 1986, I found their enamel signage earlier this year in a reclamation yard in Wales and this sign initiated and informed the mood of the work,” he said.

Like many of his public art projects, Chinneck says his intention with the piece was to create a spectacle that somehow manages to fit in with its surroundings.

“I’m conscious that when a person walks through the doors of an art gallery they do so through choice, but people do not make that choice when presented with public sculpture,” he said.

“I wanted to create an artwork therefore that offered spectacle but was simultaneously subtle and by using the material and architectural language of the district the artwork has the ability to disappear into its environment without dominating it.”

The artist relied on donations to source the materials needed to build the structure, and installed it with help from a team of volunteers.

Here’s a statement from Alex Chinneck:

Miner on the Moon

The work is titled ‘Miner on the moon’. It is located just south of Blackfriars Bridge at 20 Blackfriars Road SE1 8NY and was produced as the finale to Merge Festival 2013.

Built in 1780, the site was originally used as livery stables housing horses and carriages for hire. The access through the site (the underpass to the bottom right of the building) was used to ferry live cattle from the rear yard to the Thames for trade. I was interested by how the architectural silhouette of the building had been created with this function in mind and I wanted to conceive a concept that responded to this shape and the buildings history.

The material and aesthetic decisions within the project celebrate the architectural heritage of Southwark and the timeless charm of its fatigued buildings. By presenting a very familiar architectural scenery and narrative in an inverted way, the audience hopefully re-appreciates the buildings and moments of our daily environments that we allow to slip into our subconscious.

Miner on the Moon by Alex Chinneck is an upside-down building in London
Original building
The sign (W. H. Willcox & Co Ltd) is a company founded in 1876 on Southwark Street a few minutes walk from the site. After being dissolved in 1986, I found their enamel signage earlier this year in a reclamation yard in Wales and this sign initiated and informed the mood of the work.

As an artist, this very busy junction is of course prime real estate for public sculpture given the volume of traffic and potential audience. Having said that, I’m conscious that when a person walks through the doors of an art gallery they do so through choice but people do not make that choice when presented with public sculpture. I wanted to create an artwork therefore that offered spectacle but was simultaneously subtle and by using the material and architectural language of the district the artwork has the ability to disappear into its environment without dominating it.

The project was built in partnership Mace Group. Other supporters and sponsors include Tate, Better Bankside, Ibstock Brick, Norbord, Euroform, Eurobrick, K-Rend, Kingspan, Lyons Annoot, Benchmark Scaffolding, Dhesi and Urban Surface Protection.
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source: urbanistabloghu

Eszméletlenül jól néz ki ez a két feje tetejére állított ház, amit a nagy építészeti mókamester, Alex Chinneck követett el, aki legutóbb egy tengerparti ház homlokzatát csúsztatta le kissé, mintha csak papírcsomagolás lenne és levált volna az épületről. Nos ez sem Photoshop, de persze nem is az, aminek látszik.
Merthogy ezt látják a járókelők ezen a southwarki utcán:

Gyönyörűen kidolgozott részletek fejjel lefele. A legszebb benne az ELADÓ felirat, a küszöb, na meg a cégtábla.

Persze ha nem járókelők vagyunk, hanem galambok akkor látjuk miről van szó:

Meg akkor is, ha a környéken lakunk, hiszen akkor néhány hete még ezt láthattuk:

Az 1790-ben emelt épület elég pocsék állapotban van. Az akcióval – amihez adományokból gyűjtöttek alapanyagot és önkéntes munkával hajtottak végre – mindenesetre sikerült felhívni a lakatlan épületre a figyelmet!