Chord – Conrad Shawcross

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British artist Conrad Shawcross has created Chord, a giant and site specific installation in the Kingsway Tram Subway, Holborn in October 2009.

This vast underground tunnel is a remarkable and fascinating survivor of London’s tramway heritage which closed for public use in 1952.

Exhibit Studio was commissioned as lighting consultant to develop a lighting scheme that could meet the physical challenge of both the venue and the art work itself.

Using the space’s impressive height, an array of spotlights were discreetly attached to a crest of the corrugated metal that formed a false ceiling, almost invisible. The spots cast their light down onto the artist’s weaving machines creating little shadow in the space and minimising any possible glare to the viewers.

Each spotlight was individually controlled. The extent of the rope holding the spots is only illuminated when the coloured hawser is covered by the spotlights above. The out of range spotlights are switched off, resuming darkness to the rest of the space so that viewers can appreciate the subtle weaving dynamic of the ropes slowly travelling through the tunnel over the course of the exhibition.