Fact Sheet

Project: imma - light installation at Millbank
Status - Installation - London Festival of Architecture
Location - Curreton Street, Millbank, London, UK

Materials: 5km of polytubing (3mm), Phosphorus Blue powder, PVA Glue, Compressor, Metal Hooks, Steel wire

The Ditch: 80 m long, 6,5 m wide

Credits

Nikoloz Japaridze, Christopher Smith, Sandro Antadze

Students: Shota Dzagnidze, Lado Shonia, Tornike Dadiani, George Kobulia, Temur Ninua, Ketevan Ghudushauri, Salome Iremashvili, Tinatin Mosidze

Brief

Questioning the act of spatial manipulation can provide a multiplicity of readings (of form) and the slightest of additions allow space to become reinvigorated. Restraining the palette of materials raises the question of whether singular materials can successfully transform space whilst also embodying memory.

Tate Britain currently stands on the former grounds of the Panopticon Millbank penitentiary (designed by Jeremy Benthem). At its centre was Grosvenor House, which allowed prison guards to keep watch over 1,500 prisoners in transit (to Australia); these prisoners were housed in separate cells in the surrounding pentagonal blocks.

Liquid Memories is set in a ditch, which was used as a moat around the penitentiary (and is now left-over uninhabited space). The installation seeks to evoke a tension in the space, with the movement/freedom of water imitated in tesselating line geometries working in contradiction to the actuality of the form itself.

The lines of polytubing are in stasis and constrain the figure in opposition to the evoked movement. These city spaces are reminders of previous settlement. New forms speak to memory and reawaken it through the act of architecture.

Special Thanks to

Mananiko Muskhelishvili, Natasha S Randall, Nino SanadzeNina Akhvlediani, David Javakhishvili, David Klandadze, Ketevan Kandelaki, Moira Lascelles, David Seel,Sebastien Houitte, the LFA staff, and:

LFA 2008 Director Peter Murrey,
Tbilisi Academy of Arts
Dean of the Faculty - Nodar Amashukeli
Georgian TU
Dean of the Faculty-Gocha Mikiashvili
Residents of Wilkie and Marysmith Houses
Gocha Otarashvili, Frederik Pellerin, Beso Magradze, Mirian Svanidze, Afto and Dava Dolidze, Alexander Ediberidze

Organisations Involved:
Ministry Of Culture, Georgia
Embassy of Georgia in London
British Council
Tbilisi State Academy of Art
Georgian Technical University
Little Georgia Cafe
Ada Street Gallery
Noblex.ge
Georgian Tea
City of Westminster
Millbank Estates
EPR Architects Ltd.