Green Ted
Joel Okolo-Hunter was rehearsing for the lunchtime concert while the photographs were being taken.
East Window
East Window, Shirazeh Houshiary and Pip Horne
St Martin in the Fields
19th Jun 2018, 11:38
Fuji X-M1, 16-50mm @ 18mm (27mm)
1/30 sec; f/5.6
Cat. 4,061-63
This is the finest piece in unstained glass that I know. Just by distorting a grid of lines, the artist suggests the cross and Jesus' head.
Quote from The Guardian.
The new window at St Martin-in-the-Fields carries a gynaecological reworking of Christian symbols.
"Radical" might seem a contentious word to use in the context of female Iranian artists or religious architecture, but Shirazeh Houshiary's soon-to-be unveiled East Window for the revamped St-Martin-in-the-Fields is nothing less.
The abundance of natural light filtering into the church through the etched glass and steel fret work of the new window makes it hard to disagree with the vicar that the project has more than adequately fulfilled its brief. And what a brief: to provide a permanent replacement for a stained glass window shattered by bombs in the second world war that would "successfully animate the light". This delicate fusion of contemporary art and classical architecture is sublime for reasons all of its own, but helped in no small part by Eric Parry Architects' outstanding lottery-assisted renovation of this once dank interior.
The abstract cross-infused design by the 1994 Turner prize nominee and her architect husband Pip Horne was chosen from a shortlist of five contemporary artists. From an art critical or London-cultural perspective they might seem the obvious choice - not one of the other proposals comes close to the poetic simplicity of their warped monochrome grid. And then there's the issue of Houshiary's exotic heritage - a Shiraz-born woman resident in the UK since 1974 - as lever for column inches. But it's not until you experience the work in situ that the significance of this decision hits home.
This bold move by Rev Nicholas Holtam and his commissioning team, which included art critic Richard Cork and Royal Academy CEO Charles Saumarez-Smith, should be applauded. They might have plumped for the safe secularity of Alexander Beleshenko's leaf motif or the colour-coded knot work of Mark Francis. Instead, they have chosen a rather gynaecological reworking of the ultimate symbols of Christianity and modernism - the cross and the grid. "Sandwiched", as Parry describes new parts of the building, "between [18th century architects] Nash and Gibbs", Houshiary's subtle curvilinear abstraction of the stained glass lattice feels very other and feminine, throwing the Church of England's slowly shifting conservatism towards matters of race, gender and sexuality into sharp relief.
In the context of the artist's practice this may be nothing new. Her objects and paintings describe the point of exchange between formal modernist principles and spiritual enquiry. And Houshiary and Horne are hardly strangers to controversy. Their 2004 public commission Breath consisted of a white double-helix tower that emitted different religious chants between dawn and dusk from a New York plaza. Here, though, as Rev Holtam states: "The fact that we are standing now in front of a church window designed by an Iranian woman artist, at the beginning of the 21st century, is truly significant". theguardian.com
Victims of Injustice and Violence
Victims of Injustice and Violence, Chain Stephenson
St Martin in the Fields
19th Jun 2018, 11:57
Fuji X-M1, 16-50mm @ 21mm (32mm)
1/30 sec; f/5.6
Cat. 4,070-71
This was quite difficult to photograph. The East window was tricky because of the dynamic range, this was worse, being in a murky corner. The Window is completely burned out and the photograph of the label is motion blurred because exposure was 0.6 seconds.
Quote from WestEndExtra, Alina Polianskaya
A STATUE in St Martin-in-the-Fields by sculptor Chaim Stephenson, who has died aged 89, has become a widely-recognised symbol against violence and injustice.
Tributes have been paid to the sculptor and his work – particularly the Living South Africa Memorial – which was dedicated to the church in Trafalgar Square by Archbishop Desmond Tutu in 1994, the year of South Africa’s first democratic elections.
Tricia Sibbons, co-founder of the Living South Africa Memorial Trust, said: “Chaim was a very humble, humorous and sensitive man and his feeling for his work, and our commission in particular, spoke to us through the drawings he made of his ideas for the Living South Africa memorial project. “We chose Chaim as our sculptor because he had a portfolio and a gift for semi-religious sculptures and while we did not want that specifically for our Living South Africa Memorial, we wanted someone who understood the context of a memorial and the religious significance.”
St Martin-in-the-Fields’ Reverend Richard Carter said: “It is dedicated to victims of violence and injustice in that country. It is a sign of our church’s solidarity with the people of South Africa during the struggle against apartheid and our solidarity with all those who are oppressed by violence and injustice in our world today.”
The piece, which depicts a young victim of violence has become a spot where people gather to stand united with others. Though it is dedicated to South Africa, Rev Carter added that “it has become a kind of memorial to all victims of violence”.
“People come to light candles around it, especially at times of violence around the world, such as a the recent attacks in France and Belgium.” westendextra.com
In the Beginning, Mike Chapman
In the Beginning, Mike Chapman
19th Jun 2018, 12:08
iPhone 7+, 4mm (28mm)
1/300 sec; f/1.8; ISO 20
Cat. 4,080-85
This would make a good bookend pair with a piece at Chatsworth.
Quote from the Shady Old Lady.
This is a sculpture in the external porchway of St Martin in the Fields church entitled 'In the Beginning' by Mike Chapman.
The newborn baby is shown emerging from a large lump of rock, with the umbilical cord disappearing into the rock. There are a couple of steps at the side to help you get high enough up so that you can look down on this sculpture and get a better angle.
The inscription says In the beginning was the word and the word became flesh and lived among us. John 1. 14. shadyoldlady.com
London Coliseum
London Coliseum
19th Jun 2018, 12:18
Fuji X-M1, 16-50mm @ 29mm (44mm)
1/280 sec; f/6.4
Cat. 4,090
Composite, differential focus image.
A few yards from St Martin's, GT on a lamppost with the London Coliseum globe and a chap with a beer barrel in the Chandos balcony in the background.
Quote from the Arthur Lloyd music hall and theatre history site.
[The tower] consists of heavy column pilasters, with bold carved figures at the, corners, representing Art, Music, Science and Architecture. From here the tower assumes different outlines, formed by trusses and niches, and the introduction of sculptured lions; the whole is carried up, getting less in diameter as the top is approached, when the eight figures in the shape of cupids support a large iron revolving globe, to which is attached large electric letters spelling 'Coliseum'.
The globe is made to revolve, and this artistic advertisement can be seen for many miles. A further novelty in advertising is the electric device along the front, which gives the nature of the performance taking place at the time during the evening. arthurlloyd.co.uk