I Don't Believe It!

Feeling very self righteous this morning, in getting to Liverpool half a hour before my meeting, this feeling soon evaporated, as making one simple mistake and wrong turn, this put my car on the irreversible approach to the Mersey Tunnel. Once done, there was no turning back, and no option but to drive all the way through to Birkenhead. Another problem was I only had the £1.50 to pay the toll one way.

Not realising I could pay the toll back with a debit card, and having driven off looking for a cashpoint, I finally arrived at my meeting half an hour late. Mmm.

After the meeting, and walking to my car in the multi storey car park, I suddenly spotted this old friend. It is the temporary public art installation called Turning the Place Over created by eminent British artist Richard Wilson (no, not the actor). It was funded as part of the Icons of the North programme and formed part of the 2008 Liverpool Biennial and European Capital of Culture.

Now ended, the work consisted of an 8 metre diameter ovoid literally cut-out of the façade and windows of a old derelict building, and which rotated on a slanted axis. This revolving section of building was supported on a giant offset rotator, with technology borrowed from the mechanical industries. It acted as a permanently oscillating 'window', allowing glimpses deep into the building interior as it opened up on sections of it's rotatation.

The fact that Wilson's kinetic "performance architecture" has finally ground to a halt seems a shame, especially as the current Liverpool Biennial is now underway. That said, I quite like this metaphor of a superimposed spiders web being draped over the building. One foot in the grave, you could say.

This is a short YouTube video I took of it working in 2009. Not brilliant quality (pre iPhone) but you get the general idea.