The Sheffield Pavilion 2009
"Xanadu" - a work comissioned by Sheffield Contemporary Art Forum for the Istanbul Biennale

still from xanadu

Xanadu juxtaposes the poem 'Kubla Khan' by Samuel Taylor Coleridge with images of the eye-catching surface decoration of Sheffield's newest car park. The poem describes an imaginary world, conceived in an opium-induced dream, while the car park is one of the last buildings to be completed before the economic bubble burst. A vertiginous spiral ascent from street level is followed by shifting, blending images of the car park's fantasy facade, accompanied by a growing chorus of readers reciting Coleridge's poem. No sooner is the summit reached, than the dream is punctured and the viewer descends by twists and turns through the bowels of the near empty building, before being deposited back on the streets of the city. Does Sheffield have a shining new pavilion or a shimmering white mausoleum devoid of cars? Only time will tell.
still from xanadu


still from xanadu
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