SHOW/ Decorex International 2018

Midi (I-X), 2018. Plaster on board. 1226 x 244cm

In September, we were invited by Decorex International to create a bespoke fresco panel installation for the Decorex 2018 café at Syon Park, London. For the four days, our vast twelve-metre, ten-panel, fresco polyptych hung as the centrepiece on the main wall in the café, offering a good dose of warm colour and a welcome break from the bustle of the main show hall.

“The Midi fires your senses: makes your hand more agile, your eye sharper, your brain clearer”

— Van Gogh, to his brother Theo

‘Midi’ was inspired by resonant places from childhood. It is rooted in personal landscapes from memories of the farm orchards and fields of southwest England and by long, hot, mellow summers spent in rural France.

It draws upon the rich artistic history of France’s south, where it seems there was almost a magnetism in the soil that attracted Cézanne, Picasso, Van Gogh and many others. We worked with the spirit of the powerful, fertile and rugged landscapes of the Midi-Pyrénées and Provence, and the fiery ochre seams and sculptural rock faces of the Bibémus Quarries.

Influenced by the practices in Action Art and Abstract Expressionism, this piece was created in a single intense time period (akin to a traditional fresco painter’s giornata).

Here are some behind the scenes photos:

We made a lot of mess, of both studio and garments, as per usual, and the tight timeframe involved the inevitable nightshift. But when the sun set across the installed piece at Syon Park, and the whole fresco lit up and glowed molten gold, it was absolute magic. Worth every bit of plaster stuck in hair and water deposited down jumper. Feeling thankful that the protective pink plastic that was on the floor was lifted and that the background wall was white before anyone saw the piece. And then there was prosecco, which is never a bad thing.