Victoria Embankment, London
Victoria Embankment: The Thames Wunderkammer: Tales from Victoria Embankment in Two Parts, Simon Roberts
Year
2017-2022
Client
fereday pollard for Tideway
Artist
Simon Roberts
Service
Commission Management
Location
Victoria Embankment, London
A cabinet of curiosities including photographs of local landmarks and historical illustrations for the hoarding at Victoria Embankment
Responding to the rich heritage of the Victoria Embankment, Simon Roberts created a metaphorical ‘cabinet of curiosities’ along two 25-metre foreshore hoardings.
Roberts describes his approach as an ‘aesthetic excavation of the area’, creating an artwork that reflects the literal and metaphorical layering of the landscape, in which objects from the past and present are juxtaposed to evoke new meanings. Monumental statues are placed alongside items that are more ordinary; diverse elements, both man-made and natural, co-exist in new ways. All these components symbolise the landscape’s complex history, culture, geology, and development.
“The work makes me think about variety, the diversity and richness of London. We walk on history and this work uncovers some of it”
His artwork includes dramatic photographs of local landmarks and statuary such as Cleopatra’s Needle and the London Sphinx, precious objects from the Museum of London and the Imperial War Museum, historical illustrations e.g. ‘Monster Soup commonly called Thames Water’ 1828 by William Heath; as well as objects he found from mudlarking on the nearby foreshore.
Hear more from Simon about the making of the work as part of this film.
“Very intriguing. Makes you curious”
Simon Roberts (b.1974) is a British photographer based in Brighton, UK. He originally studied a BA Hons Degree in Human Geography at the University of Sheffield, which has informed much of his subsequent photographic practice. Often employing expansive landscape photographs, his approach is one of creating wide-ranging surveys of our time, which communicate on important social, economic and political issues.
Roberts has published three critically acclaimed monographs, Motherland (Chris Boot, 2007), We English (Chris Boot, 2009) and Pierdom (Dewi Lewis Publishing, 2013) that formed the basis of a major national and international touring solo show in 2014-16. He has exhibited extensively internationally, and his photographs reside in major public and private collections, including the Deutsche Borse Art Collection and Wilson Centre for Photography. His awards include the Vic Odden Award (2007) and bursaries from the National Media Museum (2007), John Kobal Foundation (2008)
For more information see:
www.tideway.london