FUTURE CITY

ARTIST: Paul Morrison

Art and architecture collaboration

156-176 ST JOHN STREET, LONDON
2007 – 2010

Futurecity were appointed in 2007 to curate and manage a major art and architecture collaboration with architects Rolfe Judd at their new mixed-use scheme on St John Street, responding to their Section 106 obligation for public art. Futurecity shortlisted three international artists - Paul Morrison, Simeon Nelson and Simon Periton - to respond to a detailed brief which asked them to create a work to be embedded within the façade of one of the main buildings in the scheme.

Artist Paul Morrison won the commission to produce his work ‘Oxeye’.  The graphic monochrome image has been applied to the steel panels that wrap around the west and south elevations of the building.  Foremost, a single cropped image of a huge flower in bloom covers the entire façade and on the horizon line of the building is depicted a landscape of contrasting scale, containing silhouetted images of trees connected by a linear horizon.
 
The organic, natural subject matter of the flower and the trees which are typical motifs in Paul’s work, create a startling contrast with the more linear, regimented urban architecture of both the rest of the St John Street development and the general feel of this part of Clerkenwell.

'Oxeye' is Paul Morrison's first permanent public art installation in London.