In 2010 Futurecity were appointed by Barratt London to develop a Public Art Strategy to commission a high quality new contemporary artwork to be embedded into Rochester Row’s architecture as an integral part of the design concept. Artist Oliver Marsden worked with Assael Architects on the facade of the building.
Radial Etch is concerned with visual pleasure and what he terms visual harmonics. Each panel was developed individually to create fragments of the overall piece which viewed as a whole appears as a series of hundreds of fine concentric circles – perhaps reminiscent of a vinyl record or the vast circular ripples formed by a splash in water.
The piece is designed to remain in constant flux, dependent upon the position of the viewer and the light conditions of the moment – to create an ever-changing focus of light upon the building. By affecting the surface of the metal, the ultra-fine lines of the artwork will be picked up by the sunlight (and later the artificial light around the scheme) and create a myriad of changing surfaces across the building.
