Side Street

I had to miss lifedrawing this week to attend a swanky hotel opening (tough life). One of my art tutors at college was a famous jeweller (in the field famous - this is symptomatic of artists and craftspeople - everyone in the field has heard of them an no one out of this circle does) and reassessed what she was doing and became a artist who makes site-specific sculture. She was working with the architect of the hotel to do the pedestrian way along the side of the hotel. This 'do' has become a site-specific work called Side Street. The hotel opening coincided with a private view of this new work.

So here is a glimpse of Side Street by Susanna Heron.









The work emcompasses the whole area - what the walls are made from, the paving, the cafe chairs, the columns, the ceiling and the slate friezes. This kind of slate frieze is what distinguishes Susanna's work. She carves the image into prepared (very flat, very smooth) slate - the image is made from a variety of 'marks' made with a grinding tool - varying depths of cut and kinds of finishes.

Anyway, bails and I went along, had a couple of glasses of free champagne and nicked off just before the speeches started. The funniest thing was the official photographer - SH had to pose sitting at a cafe table holding a flute of champagne aloft (most unnatural pose for her - I think she would rather not have had the wine in the picture at all) and then made her stand on a ledge next to her work - which required taking off high heels, stepping onto one of the cafe chairs and posing next to a slate frieze. The party was full of suits (from the hotel opening at a guess) with the odd arty person mingling between - there was the man in the weird hat, a few pairs of outrageous designer glasses, two overdressed frocks and a couple of pairs of teetering high heels.