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Turner Foundation

Part 2 Project 2007
Alex Street
Kingston University Kingston | UK
The foundation provides a permanent home for the remainder of the Turner Bequest. Housed within the introverted archive spaces of the tower the collection is bathed in light diffused through an alabaster façade. A fine arts bronze foundry incorporated into the scheme celebrates the making of art as craft, skilled artisans engaged in the production of art for other artists. The development mediates between the urban and suburban conditions of Twickenham; the archive tower challenges the urban scale of London Road whilst the foundry, studio and station elements re-present the suburban condition in their form, scale and materiality.
Alex Street


This project attempts to address the relationship between the artist and the artisan in the age of mechanical reproduction through the fulfilment of Turner’s desire for an institution where his whole collection could be held. The making of the final work of art in the foundry is connected to some resident artists’ studios which underpin the body of the collection housed in the alabaster clad tower – itself a product of the artisan. The introverted nature of the tower is finally released on the top floor through the temporary exhibition space which has views back onto the landscape.

2007
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