‘Sir Steve Redgrave’, Justin Mortimer
We were appointed by the River & Rowing Museum, Henley-on-Thames to deliver an artist brief for a portait commission of Olympic rower and world champion Sir Steve Redgrave for the museum’s main entrance.
Following a selection process, we commissioned Justin Mortimer who had recently earned extensive publicity with his portrait of Queen Elizabeth depicting her head floating away from her body against a yellow background. Mortimer spent time with Redgrave, shadowing his gruelling training regime. The painting is a study in concentration, will and commitment. By depicting the subject floating on the canvas, Mortimer glorifies the Olympic rower.
We commissioned ‘Sir Steve Redgrave’ in 1998 on behalf of the River & Rowing Museum, Henley-on-Thames and funded by the Edington Charitable Trust.
BAA Heathrow Terminal 3 Collection
Under the BAA Art Programme, we undertook a series of commissions in 1995 that formed part of the Heathrow Terminal 3 art collection. In close consultation with our clients, we identified the circulation spaces at Heathrow Terminal 3 that took business class passengers to the airline lounges as suitable sites for the commissions. With the majority of business travellers through T3 visiting London for business, it was decided that scenes of London would make the most appropriate theme.
Four young, emerging artists were invited to celebrate famous London landmarks. ‘Man Walking His Dog: Trafalgar Square’ by Guy Noble; ’The Epic and the Everyday’ by John Bartlett, a view of the City of London near St Paul’s Cathedral. For London’s markets, Soho, Portobello and Covent Garden we commissioned Haydn Cottam, while Jonathan Waller’s paintings depicted the quiet, calm leafy greenness of many of London’s parks and gardens with his ‘Queen Mary’s Garden: Regent’s Park’ and a typical summers day in ‘Hyde Park’.
‘Man Walking His Dog: Trafalgar Square’ by Guy Noble and ‘Hyde Park’ by Jonathan Waller have since been relocated to the Compass Centre, Heathrow’s head office and form part of the Heathrow Art Collection.
‘What Are You Waiting For’, Zatorski + Zatorski
Zatorski + Zatorski collaborated with Barking College, whose students are mainly young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds or who initially dropped out of the education system in their teens and then returned to education to gain qualifications to enable them to find employment or find higher paid employment. The project title, ‘What Are You Waiting For’, was chosen to reflect the participants’ desire to get on. A statement, not a question.
Each student was given a disposable black & white camera and encouraged to think out of the box. The group explored the conceptual and visual potential of the theme ‘What Are You Waiting For’, developing creative ways to translate the brief and their own ideas through the medium of photography. The project enabled and encouraged each student to expand their intellectual and visual talents and capabilities through image-making.
The project was commissioned by HS Projects in 2003 and funded by the Insight Community Arts Programme (2002 – 2015).