More than 300 contributions in 34 languages have been submitted by Cambridge Assessment employees and members of the public via our social media channels to the question ’What is Knowledge?’. All of these are now being used by the artists Vong Phaophanit and Claire Oboussier to bring the public art for our new Triangle headquarters (an artist rendition of the building, below) to fruition.
The languages contributed included mainstream European languages as well as some unusual ones such as Guernsey French and Manx. In addition there were many Eastern European languages and others from further afield including Arabic, Filipino, Malayan, Swahili, Afrikaans, Bengali Tibetan, Punjabi and Urdu.
Commenting on the contributions Clare Obussier said: “These contributions are quite amazing. Some are very ‘practical’ and others really thought provoking and philosophical. They will make a great contribution to the overall text design.”
Vong and Claire will now begin finalising the work, using the words you have contributed to produce layer upon layer of script that will be printed onto glass and subtly illuminated from behind. The tower art will be a parchment colour (pale cream) and the 33m long entrance artwork will be in an indigo/inky shade (both colours chosen for their link to academic practice). Close-up the script will be readable, but from a distance the words will merge together to form an attractive abstract piece of art. The work will feature dense layers of text and colour on the far sides which will gradually fade as you reach the middle, creating a vacuum or void where there will be no words.
The inclusion of public art within the Triangle development (pictured under construction above) is an obligation we have under the terms of our planning agreement (Section 106) with Cambridge City Council, but with this work we have also been able to create something that brings interest to the building and is very relevant to the organisation. The aim of this, and all public art, is to improve the visual and cultural environment around the development and to help mitigate its impact on the surrounding area.
You can find out more about the work from this video featuring Vong and Claire at their studio and there will be further updates as the work progresses.
Judith Gaskell
PR consultant, Cambridge Assessment