20/09/16
Interview: Conrad Shawcross
The Optic Cloak, Greenwich Peninsula
His largest scale project to date, The Optic Cloak is
an architectural intervention, commissioned by Knight Dragon, in which the sculptor
Conrad Shawcross has created a 49-metre-tall aluminium cladding for a flue
stack, 20 metres wide and 3 metres deep, standing on the roadside on the
Greenwich Peninsula. Making use of the Moiré Effect, Shawcross has tessellated
together triangular panels, creating a disrupted surface, which allows light
through, causing a flux, or undulation, as if the ‘cloak’ were moving. During
the evening, the tower will be lit from within, continually redefining the
shape of the structure and its surroundings. Inspirations come from such
spheres as maritime camouflage, cubism and op art. The Optic Cloak has been
designed in collaboration with the architectural practice CF Møller Architects.
Watch this interview here