Mayfair Appartment

The owner of this private apartment block in Mayfair had been inspired by the pieces I’d made for HIDE restaurant, which was just around the corner. These panels were made from a mould and were embedded into the walls. There were fifteen wall panels in total, and it was the first time that I’d made a ceiling rose and twelve corner ceiling panels. I found the project really exciting, because I was creating my personal take on something that is usually quite traditional—though my work was definitely not a pastiche, as I wasn’t trying to make my pieces look like eighteenth-century plaster cornicing. I worked with the architectural firm HUT on the design, and the installation was skilfully managed by the construction company Volute.

Each panel measured 130 × 65 cm (51 × 25 1/2 in.), and I had five different designs to combine in a variety of ways. Although the panels are not unique casts, I made them as a limited edition. The plants represented the height of summer, and included such things as cosmos, passion flowers, thalictrum, heuchera, gaura, sweet peas, knifophia, sedum, and fennel. I’d grown most of them, but I also included some given to me by my good friend Patricia.