Urban Alchemy is a large-scale urban print project and artist book created by Hilary Powell.
It brings together the parallel worlds of university scientists and demolition contractors working on University College London’s building sites to expose the hidden processes of urban transformation and the material stories of our built environment.
Over the course of 10 months Powell has collaborated with material scientists within the UCL Chemistry department and with skilled tradesmen and labourers to salvage and transform ‘waste’ materials’ that she can use for her printing experiments. Through a series of scientific processes zinc roofing, copper boilers, plywood hoardings and the dust from slate, brick and rust are transformed to become print making materials and urban ink palette.
The culmination of these experiments is the exquisitely produced book Urban Alchemy.
In the tradition of an alchemical ‘book of secrets’ it reveals a series of techniques and processes the artist has undertaken in applying traditional print techniques to reclaimed demolition site materials. The book uncovers stories and histories of these materials and their life cycles and includes portraits of demolition contractors etched into the very zinc and copper that they dismantled. Powell is also working on a 3m length of roofing zinc to create a panorama of the skyline as seen from UCL rooftops which will be exhibited alongside the portraits in the Construction Welfare Canteen, the meeting place for all the builders working on the transformation of UCL.
Urban Alchemy has uncovered and worked with the people, processes and materials of a city and specific site undergoing constant transformation, demolition and renovation.
In conjunction with the book launch there will be a series of workshops as part of UCL’s Institute of Making’s ‘Festival of Stuff’. A masterclass in alternative stone lithography replacing the usual limestone with concrete and cement will take place on Thursday 25th June 2015. On Saturday 27th June 2015 there will be an open workshop/performance, inviting participants to work with materials from the demolition site to create large-scale woodcut images into reclaimed plywood hoardings printed using a road roller, as well as an opportunity to make ink from bricks and slate.
Urban Alchemy will be available to purchase from Hilary Powell’s website www.hilarypowell.com
About the artist
Hilary Powell is a London-based artist working across disciplines and media from installation to film, performance and printmaking to create projects that explore and re-imagine urban sites in transition.
Her recent project ‘Pop Up Pop Up’, in partnership with the Bartlett School of Architecture, was an interactive performance of the actual making of her book ‘Legend: An A-Z of the Lea Valley’. With a team of apprentices the production line was open to the public in a former sign writers workshop in Stratford. It was awarded the Birgit Skiöld Memorial Trust Award at the London Art Book Fair and is in the collections of the V&A National Art Library , Saison Poetry Library and MoMA. It will also be exhibited in the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition 2015.
Other projects which involved a range of local communities and partners include: ‘LightYears Away’ (2009) – a roller-skating light animation in Archway commissioned byTransport For London, University of the Arts London and Islington Council; the guerilla film ‘The Games’ (2007) in which Powell stages a surreal Olympics amid the disorientating sites set to become the London 2012 Olympic Park; and ‘Pudding Mill River: Purveyors of Sporting Spirits and Foodstuff’ (2008) a foray into food and fiction with a wild food company with a contested back story.
www.hilarypowell.com
Festival of Stuff
Organised by the Institute of Making the Festival of Stuff runs from 23rd June to the 27th June, consisting of four days of bookable masterclasses and culminating in an extravaganza of materials and making. The bookable masterclasses will include: basket weaving, metal and plastic tape plating, paper cord weaving, shaker box making, pyrotechnic display, glass whistle making and much more.
www.instituteofmaking.org.uk
London Festival of Architecture
The London Festival of Architecture (LFA) celebrates London as a global hub of architectural experimentation, practice and debate.Taking place throughout June, the annual festival provokes questions about the contemporary and future life of the city, and promotes positive change to its public realm.The city-wide programme is delivered with leading cultural and academic institutions alongside associated projects by practices and individuals.
www.londonfestivalofarchitecture.org
