St Wilfrid’s Hospice in Eastbourne moved into their stunning new building in autumn 2013. I was commissioned to act as lead artist for the project, helping recruit and commission other artists, and also to create a major artwork for the “street” – the main social space you reach upon entering the building. I took my inspiration from the soothing qualities of the South Downs, and developed a design which would work sympathetically with the clever way architect Nic Hoar has worked with natural light in the space. Using multiple components of precision laser cut and mirror polished stainless steel, combined with a number of optical glass prisms, Glittering Landscape is an artwork which changes completely from moment to moment as the daylight fluctuates.
In order to develop the design I spent much of the spring and summer of 2013 walking on the downs in the very early morning, taking photographs and making sketches. It was a glorious experience which brought me much peace in what was at times difficult year personally. There is something wonderful about the way the South Downs soft curves hold you in a kind of intimacy, and yet at the same time open out to give a sensation of expansiveness and open experience. Your eye is taken from the far horizon and the scudding clouds, right down to individual drops of dew, wild flowers, and butterflies flitting around your feet.
Several hundred photographs were produced and a selection of the best have been put on permanent display in St Wilfrid’s.