Barn Elms, London
Barn Elms: A Way From Heaven, Adam Chodzko
Year
2023
Client
fereday pollard for Tideway
Artist
Adam Chodzko
Service
Commission Management
Location
Barn Elms Schools Sports Centre playing field, Barn Elms, London. Note: the site is only accessible to schools using the playing fields. Glimpses of the artwork can be seen from the Beverly Brook footpath.
A permanent integrated commission for the facade of the mechanical and electrical building at the Tideway site in Barn Elms.
Adam Chodzko’s commission at Barn Elms is based upon the area’s connection to Sir Francis Walsingham – the government administrator responsible for intelligence services in the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1 – who resided at Barn Elms Manor. It was Walsingham’s spy system that discovered the Babington Plot of 1586 to murder Queen Elizabeth I and her ministers and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots. Babington’s encrypted correspondence with Mary was intercepted and decoded by Walsingham’s spies, preventing the plot from being carried out and ultimately leading to the execution of the Queen of Scots. As with all of the permanent commissions for Tideway, the artist’s proposal responds to the site’s history as set out in Tideway’s Heritage Interpretation Strategy.
Chodzko’s work, developed with the Contractor’s design team, involved laser cutting a portion of the code, which Walsingham deciphered, into the anodised aluminium façade of the building. Comprising a smaller version in a repetitive pattern, and larger version across the façade. The contrast between the areas of code and the background was achieved by sandblasting the aluminium, to create a darker finish.
“The commission became, for me, an amazing opportunity to work across times and states of mind; from 16th C espionage, speculations about guilt and falconry to current computer coding and collective hopes. Being able to work at such a large scale, over several years, knowing that my design and the ideas behind it will be chanced upon by a diverse public for many decades ahead was both a challenge and a treat!”
Working from a digitised version of the original, the work faithfully recreates the handwritten script of Babington’s code, written with a quill and ink, and enabled Chodzko to employ artistic licence to create an equally enigmatic message that resemble topographical marks on a map but can be decoded to read ‘A WAY FROM HEAVEN’.
In reference to the falconry kept by Walsingham at Barn Elms and the quills used to write the ciphers a row of falcon feathers feature in the background of the work, rendered in a darker pigmentation by annodising the metal. At the top left and bottom right of the façade are the html codes </head> and </body> referencing contemporary computer code, and the separation of head and body of Mary Queen of Scots.
Deliberately ambiguous, and resisting any singular meaning, the phrase A WAY FROM HEAVEN, and the work’s title, provokes numerous readings and interpretations that resonate with the site’s history and its current purpose. Beheaded for plotting to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I, the words could be interpreted as sealing Mary’s fate, forbidding her entry into heaven, while conversely a peaceful and meditative scene can be conjured from the phrase when considering Walsingham’s pastime of watching falcons swoop from the sky and away from heaven. The artist also appeals to our habit of looking up to the heavens and refocuses our minds on the earth below our feet, under which the new sewer system will run.
The artist has positioned the ciphers across the façade in a way to encourage closer scrutiny and a sense of discovery; some are partially visible, while others are obscured, and only apparent from certain angles. Additionally, by playing with scale, the ciphers and feathers can only be discerned when seen from a certain distance, encouraging the public to decipher the artwork in an approach much like Walsingham.
Fabricated by Alloy Fabweld who were contracted by BMB JV (Morgan Sindall and Balfour Beatty), the main works contractor for the west sites. Designed in collaboration with BMB’s design team including facade experts from Arup.
The building is located in a wooded corner of the playing fields near the confluence of the Thames and the Beverly Brook in a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC). The combined kiosk and vent structure is wrapped in gabions filled with five different materials to promote a diverse array of biodiversity. The structure has been created to promote biodiversity and support plant growth as well as providing habitats for insects, small invertebrates and small mammals, including two hedgehog boxes. Also, within the Barn Elms site Tideway has planted native trees, shrubs, hedges, herbaceous plants and bulbs, which have been selected for their year-round visual appeal.
“There’s also something fantastically strange about being part of a capital’s sewer system; to create an apparition within a vast but hidden flow of human waste. And it’s an exceptional opportunity for an artist to interact with, and operate within, another vast system; Tideway’s art commissioners, along with its architects, engineers, designers, fabricators, historians, environmentalists etc.”
Adam Chodzko was born in London in 1965 and now lives and works in Whitstable, Kent. His practice uses a wide range of media, including video, installation, photography, drawing, and performance. An enduring interest in his practice has been to explore the interactions and possibilities of human behaviour and to question what other, deeper and more harmonious ways might we co-exist?
He has exhibited extensively in international solo and group exhibitions including: Tate Britain, London; Tate St. Ives; Raven Row, London; Benaki Museum, Athens; Museo d'Arte Moderna, (MAMBo), Bologna; Istanbul Biennale; Venice Biennale; Deste Foundation, Athens; PS1, New York; Ikon, Birmingham. He is currently working on a major project with a community in Kent to transform their nocturnal dreams into visual animations via Artificial Intelligence.
For more information see:
www.tideway.london