Object Details

Kiss Wall

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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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