Following the presentation of Drapes at the Mirror Gallery in Plymouth (UK), the installation was invited to open the Fine Art season at 99 Bishopsgate in the City of London. The invitation came after Saff Williams, then at Acrylicize, encountered the press surrounding the original exhibition. The commission for Brookfield Properties marked an important new stage in the life of the work, bringing Drapes from a university gallery into one of London’s most striking contemporary architectural settings.
From the street, 99 Bishopsgate possesses a monumental presence; inside, its pristine geometry and luminous interiors reminded me of the cinematic spaces of 2001: A Space Odyssey. It was an exhilarating context in which to present the work. Rather than occupying a conventional gallery, Drapes entered a space where art, architecture and public life intersected.
This version of the installation comprised eighteen suspended elements distributed throughout the building. Unlike the original presentation at the Mirror Gallery, where the work functioned as a single immersive environment, the architecture of 99 Bishopsgate required the installation to unfold across a series of irregular spaces. The individual drapes became moments of colour punctuating the building, creating flashes of vivid geometry against the restrained white interior.
Looking back, I came to understand how profoundly site-specific Drapes had always been. Each new venue required a dialogue between the original concept and a new architectural context. While the Mirror Gallery installation remains the version closest to my original vision, 99 Bishopsgate revealed something different: how a work conceived as a single spatial experience could adapt, fragment and generate new relationships with the spaces it inhabited.
The exhibition marked the beginning of Drapes‘ public life beyond its original commission and opened the way for subsequent presentations in other architectural settings. Rather than repeating the work, each iteration became an opportunity to ask how colour, cloth and scale might reshape our experience of space in different ways.
Exhibition
Drapes
99 Bishopsgate, London
18 September – 30 October 2017
Commissioned by Brookfield Properties.
Curated by Saff Williams.
Installation photography: Cristina Schek.