Earlier today I was walking along Blackfriars rd and noticed that one of the buildings had been turned completely upside down. After a little digging I discovered it is the work of Hackney artist Alex Chinneck.
Alex Chinneck, whose previous projects include a house with its façade slumped down into the yard and a melting brick wall, constructed a this new façade for a former livery stables in Southwark, with the intention of creating a spectacle that somehow manages to fit in with its surroundings.
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 façade and boarded-up windows.
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.
“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.
I’m unsure how long the installation will be up for so if you are near Blackfriars bridge any time soon, I highly recommend checking it out.
Miner on the Moon – Alex Chinneck turns South London upside-down
