COMMISSIONS

Sarnath Banerjee, Deutsche Bank Lounge, 2017

Sarnath Banerjee, Deutsche Bank Lounge, 2017

Commissions can produce the greatest results, but they can tie you in knots.

From the evidence of this photograph Sarnath Banerjee obviously sees me going round in circles. Sadly I left Deutsche Bank half way through Banerjee's commission for Canary Wharf, but the work has gone ahead in great style. The idea was for him to transform sixteen floors of a building. As he found fame initially for making graphic novels, he has turned the building into a book. Each floor is a chapter with its own storyboard.

The idea was for him to transform sixteen floors of a building. As he found fame initially for making graphic novels, he has turned the building into a book. Each floor is a chapter with its own storyboard.


Previous Commissions

Raqs Media Collective, The Arc of the Day, 2014,

Raqs Media Collective, The Arc of the Day, 2014,

Raqs Media Collective made The Arc of the Day, 2014, specially for Deutsche Bank's reception in their Birmingham office. Composed of thirteen 'clocks' that morph 'time' into emotion, twelve of them plot the path of the sun through the sky. Each clock represents a different city, its position calculated on the moment of equilux and a grid reference. When we recreated The Arc of the Dayfor the Frieze Art Fair Deutsche Bank lounge we made the gold background even glitzier: it was devised to emphasise the almost alchemic transformation.


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Idris Khan made the other commission for Deutsche Bank's Birmingham reception area. Khan was born on the edge of Birmingham but A River Runs Happy, 2014, was the first permanent work of his to be installed there. The words printed in the blue star-burst are from poetic musings on Agnes Martin.

Idris Khan, A River Runs Happy, 2014

Idris Khan, A River Runs Happy, 2014


Jaki Irvine, Shot in Mexico: On the Impossibility of Imagining the Numbers od Dead and Disappeared (Vertical), 2014, 20 framed archival pigment prints on wallpaper

Jaki Irvine, Shot in Mexico: On the Impossibility of Imagining the Numbers od Dead and Disappeared (Vertical), 2014, 20 framed archival pigment prints on wallpaper

Jaki Irvine took the commission full on to make a work for Deutsche Bank, Ireland. She designed a 25 metre high wallpaper work to use all six floors of the building. She covered the brutal architecture with thousands of Monarch butterflies. The photograph shows the trees life-size. It  was taken in Mexico where the butterflies come to lay their lava. 'Shot in Mexico: On the Impossibility of Imagining the Numbers of Dead and Disappeared' makes a direct comparison to the plight of human migrants and that of the butterfly.


Keith Tyson, 12 Harmonics, mixed media on aluminium, 2011

Keith Tyson, 12 Harmonics, mixed media on aluminium, 2011

When Keith Tyson first saw Winchester House, Deutsche Bank's London headquarters, there was a forty metre long painting by the American Pop artist James Rosenquist in situ. He knew we were wanting to replace the work. I told him that his proposal for the space did not have to be as big. 'It ------ well does.' He replied. Commissions can fulfil ambitions. He made a twelve panel work, 12 Harmonics, 2007-2011, which not only refers to the Harmonic Sequence, but to countless other rules and formulas by which we attempt to explain and govern our lives. The panels are full of inter-connections and the very occasional contradiction, but each panel has independent values of its own. So the first panel (illustrated) shows the sun in opposition to the moon in the twelve panel. It is a nature painting made by mixing chemicals in a pool on the surface. It is a genesis. It represents the singular atom Hydrogen. The values and connections go on and on ... making it the perfect picture to have in a busy foyer.