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Artist Jorge Otero-Pailos to coat Houses of Parliament in latex Artist Jorge Otero-Pailos to coat Houses of Parliament in latex
(21 days later)
The New York-based artist, historian and architect Jorge Otero-Pailos has been given the green light for a new project involving the canny combination of latex and Westminster Hall.The New York-based artist, historian and architect Jorge Otero-Pailos has been given the green light for a new project involving the canny combination of latex and Westminster Hall.
Renowned for his unique artistic process – which involves slathering coats of high-spec latex solution on to the walls of important buildings, waiting for it to dry, peeling it off and exhibiting the gauze-like material in public spaces – Otero-Pailos has been given the go-ahead by the powers-that-be to use the Houses of Parliament for his next installation. As part of his project, named The Ethics of Dust, the procedure not only strips the building of dirt and pollution, but the 12m x 6m cast will be hung as memorial of Westminster's history – a skin-like preservation of the building's dust and dirt.Renowned for his unique artistic process – which involves slathering coats of high-spec latex solution on to the walls of important buildings, waiting for it to dry, peeling it off and exhibiting the gauze-like material in public spaces – Otero-Pailos has been given the go-ahead by the powers-that-be to use the Houses of Parliament for his next installation. As part of his project, named The Ethics of Dust, the procedure not only strips the building of dirt and pollution, but the 12m x 6m cast will be hung as memorial of Westminster's history – a skin-like preservation of the building's dust and dirt.
According to a tender management document entitled Cleaning and Repairs to South, East and West Interior Elevations of Westminster Hall Phase 2: "The artist Jorge Otero-Pailos has approached the project team and requested involvement in the works to complete a piece whereby the Arte Mundit [latex] is retained, mounted and displayed to exhibit 'the ethics of dust'.According to a tender management document entitled Cleaning and Repairs to South, East and West Interior Elevations of Westminster Hall Phase 2: "The artist Jorge Otero-Pailos has approached the project team and requested involvement in the works to complete a piece whereby the Arte Mundit [latex] is retained, mounted and displayed to exhibit 'the ethics of dust'.
Otero-Pailos – who has previously latexed the walls of buildings such as the Doge's Palace in Venice – was partly inspired by John Ruskin, a critic whose significant literary output included the 1865 book The Ethics of the Dust, in which he calls the accumulation of grime a "time-stain", urging Venetian conservators to preserve the city's dark and murky walls: "Restoration may possibly … produce good imitation of an ancient work of art; but the original is then falsified, and in its restored state it is no longer an example of the art of the period to which it belonged," Ruskin wrote. "[Restoration] is a lie from beginning to end."Otero-Pailos – who has previously latexed the walls of buildings such as the Doge's Palace in Venice – was partly inspired by John Ruskin, a critic whose significant literary output included the 1865 book The Ethics of the Dust, in which he calls the accumulation of grime a "time-stain", urging Venetian conservators to preserve the city's dark and murky walls: "Restoration may possibly … produce good imitation of an ancient work of art; but the original is then falsified, and in its restored state it is no longer an example of the art of the period to which it belonged," Ruskin wrote. "[Restoration] is a lie from beginning to end."
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