Palace of Façade (Installation)

488 x 244 x 15 cm, Chinese Plywood and Pine frame.

Palace of Façade is a temporary installation for my Masters degree show. The sculpture was made using CNC-milled plywood, and measures 2.44 metres high by 4.88 metres wide. The temporary installation is based on the original Palace before the Cinema. The building was adapted for John Cooke’s Circus and latterly became a Music Hall. The Palace was burnt down on the 30th of September 1896, and all that remained was the façade as most of the building was flammable. The incident piqued my interest in linking facades and theatre stage design as false decorative fronts to represent something of greater interest with cheaper interiors or supports. Placing the façade in somewhere unsuspected and isolated, far from Bridge Place where it was originally was.

*Photography Credit: Fergus Connor*