Kiss Wall
| Browse information by: Location Makers General Information Classification Object Parts Object Condition History References Photographs |  Author: Anthony McIntosh Copyright for Photograph: Creative Commons |
Location
| Street: | Grand Junction Road |
| Town: | Brighton |
| Parish: | Brighton |
| Council: | Brighton & Hove City Council |
| County: | East Sussex |
| Postcode: | BN1 |
| Location on Google Map | |
| Object setting: | Road or Wayside |
| Access is: | Public |
| Location note: | Seafront promenade, at the top of East Street groyne |
| In the AZ book: | East Sussex |
| Page: | 162 |
| Grid reference: | E9 |
| The A-Z books used are A-Z East Sussex and A-Z West Sussex (Editions 1A 2005). Geographers' A-Z Map Company Ltd. Sevenoaks. | |
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Makers
| Name : | Bruce Williams |
| Role: | Sculptor |
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General Information
| Commissioned by: | Brighton Festival Trust |
| Commissioned also by: | Sponsored by British Gas and Arts Council of England, |
| Construction period: | 1991-1992 |
| Installation date: | 1992 |
| Unveiling date: | 22/07/1992 |
| Work is: | Extant |
| Owner custodian: | Brighton & Hove City Council |
| Object listing: | Not listed |
| Description: | Panel depicting photographs of six kissing couples, flanked by curved seating on each side. Photographs were transformed by computer into a dot screen drilled though a thick sheet of aluminium. |
| Iconographical description: | Illustrates diversity of Brighton’s population. |
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Classification
| Categories: | Sculptural, Free Standing |
| Object type1: | Street furniture |
| Object type2: | Panel |
| Subject type1: | Pictorial |
| Subject subtype1: | Group |
| Subject type2: | Figurative |
| Subject subtype1: | Group |
| Subject type3: | Portrait |
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Object Parts
| Part 1: | Panel |
| Material: | Alluminium magnesium alloy painted with dark blue car enamel |
| Height (cm): | 420 |
| Width (cm): | 155 |
| Depth (cm): | 2 |
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Object Condition
| Overall condition: | Poor |
| Risk assessment: | At risk |
| Condition 1 of type: | Surface |
| Condition 1: | Corrosion, deterioration |
| Condition 2: | Previous treatments |
| More details: | Paint surface on both sides of panel and flanking seats badly eroded, particularly at bottom. Paint has been touched up in a different blue. |
| Condition 2 of type: | Structural |
| Condition 1: | Cracks, splits, breaks, holes |
| More details: | Panel is set into asphalt path surface which is cracked. |
| Condition 3 of type: | Vandalism |
| Condition 1: | Graffiti |
| Condition 2: | Surface damage |
| More details: | Flyposted stickers on lower halves of front and back of panel. Graffitti on lower right hand side of back (facing sea) Originally had a plaque with the artist’s name and the sculpture’s title. It was removed by vandals and never replaced by the council. |
| Date of on-site inspection: | 10/12/2007 |
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History
| History: | Sources:
http://www.brighton.co.uk/arts/Public_Art.asp Beryl Graham, ‘Maximum Exposure: Photography as Public Art’, SF Camerawork Quarterly, San Francisco, Fall, 1993 (www.sunderland.ac.uk) Martin Rieser, ‘Art on the Edge’, Printmaking Today, summer edition, 2000 'Bruce Williams states that ''Kiss Wall is a celebration…calling for equality, understanding and acceptance between all individuals'' and the sculpture celebrates ''a human contact not known to transmit the HIV virus''. Indeed the sculpture affirms the kiss as a romantic and sexual or simply affectionate positive, untouched and even relieved by the dark background if Aids-consciousness.' (Arts Review, 1992. - article provided by the sculptor) |
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References
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Photographs
Author: Anthony McIntosh Copyright: Creative Commons |  Author: Anthony McIntosh Copyright: Creative Commons |
 Author: Anthony McIntosh Copyright: Creative Commons |  Author: Anthony McIntosh Copyright: Creative Commons |
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