Construction projects in Asia and UK
Building of Chek lap Kok Airport, HK, 1994-5 bas-relief in oils 183 x 123cms relief that records life on site during the building of Hong Kongβs Airport platform. I had a studio in one of the workers cabins & spent over a year based on site. The sand coloured map is the completed shape of the platform. Specialist Dutch Dredging ships sucked sand & mud from the seabed to build the platform (top centre). Local ferries transported people to work (right). Divers helped build the sea walls & place concrete blocks at the waters edge. Derrick lighters & dumper trucks shifted rocks (lower left). Specialist construction teams became part of a multicultural work force that thrived in Hong Kong during that period.
(Detail) of Dredger ship, part of Chek Lap Kok Mural
Detail, Construction workers arriving and leaving the site 1996
Gwadar Deep water port. Bas-Relief 2009/10 resin painted in oils 5ft x 4ft Commissioned by a Chinese engineering company involved in the building of Chek Lap Kok Airport. They commissioned a similar relief to display alongside the CLK relief which already was in heir head office in Beijing. To commemorate the building of a deep water port in Gwadar. Unlike many of the previous construction projects Iβve had a studio based on site, this project was already complete, so together with directors whoβd been based in Pakistan we spent hours going through images that summed up the feel of life on site. A giant jigsaw of images were worked up into rough sketches to create the final composition for the relief.
Caricature portraits of directors in a meeting ( detail) close up section of the central scene in the Gwadar previous relief showing a meeting along a large table that forms the central part of the relief. These are three Chinese guys in a meeting, worked from the many reference photos I was given. My early days of modelling glasses I used to make them solid & paint the eyes on afterwards, now I carve out the eyes inside which works far better.
In Beijing offices CHEC China Harbour Engineers headquarters
On display in situ at Chek Lap Kok airport, it has since moved to a private office
31 months at Boston Manor, The building of GSK new headquarters 2000-2001 Bas-relief 224cms x 130cms records the building of GSK new headquarters in London. For a year I had a small pre fab unit/studio in the middle of the construction site. All of the characters are based on real people I met. The white architects plan in the centre of the relief was modelled in low relief as the starting point for the composition, then the relief was built up higher around its edges recording construction processes & activities that happened in those locations on the map.
R.B.S. New Headquarters Edinburgh, offices for MACE. Fibreglass relief painted in oils 96 x 66cms Office scene of the construction team. Designing the composition & fitting in all the people is always a huge challenge & usually involves office politics. I have a tendency, not deliberate, to make the least important people appear high profile, as they often tend to be the most colourful. Whenever possible I try to spend as much time in the actual environment, as its the small details that make the images come alive, the way people sit at their computers & interact, all help in putting together the final composition. The most difficult commissions are to work from publicity shots of people staring directly at the camera smiling with no background.
Excavation. Fibreglass relief in oils 96 x 66cms, 2005 First of a series of 8 smaller reliefs recording various stages as RBS headquarters was being built. Construction a great subject for Bas-relief & working in clay seems appropriate, areas are cast with actual rock & mud from the site.
Installing Glass roof, Gogarburn. Glass panels lifted on tall cranes by a machine with rubber suction heads attached to the glass & lowered into position. Edinburgh overcast skies made a great contrast against the brightly coloured workers jackets.
Main entrance, Gogarburn. Bas-relief 96x66cms painted in oils Relief Shows the main workers entrance to the new RBS construction site, with the canteen lower right of the image, with the big blue umbrellas. This was part of a series of 8 small panels that told the story of the construction processes, from excavation to part completion. 2004-5
Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters in Edinburgh, similar to relief β31 Months at GSK β above, The white architects plan in the centre of the relief was modelled in low relief as the starting point for the composition, then the relief was built up higher around its edges recording construction processes & activities that happened in those locations on the map.