DOUBLE FIZZ

Charles Emerson

• Architects

Double Fizz is a major new public artwork by acclaimed artist Liz West, which transforms the main artery of No.1 St. Michael’s in Manchester into a kaleidoscopic immersive installation.

The permanent installation is constructed using thousands of vibrantly coloured vertical triangular stripes that are overlaid onto a mirrored aluminium surface, creating a rich mix of reflected hues. Double Fizz creates a new space within the building for exploration and discovery. The artwork depicts and symbolises a physical and metaphorical meeting point of both colours, people and space within the new building.

photo_credit Charles Emerson — Charles Emerson

Liz West is known for her wide-ranging works, from the intimate to the monumental. Using a variety of materials and exploring the use of light, she blurs the boundaries between sculpture, architecture, design and painting to create works that are both playful and immersive.

The visually rich, multicoloured stripes collectively become softer and create a mesmerising mass when viewed from different angles. The colours, shapes and forms within the work appear to change as visitors move through the space. Mirroring the vertical stripes exaggerates and doubles up the carefully selected colours, creating a fizzing cacophony of colour. The vibrant colours are further enhanced by the lighting, which creates kaleidoscopic coloured shadows on the polished concrete floor, draws out the rich tones and dramatically contrasts each tone against each other.

West explains, “It is a wonderful opportunity to be commissioned to make such a prominent artwork in my home city. I hope that Double Fizz provokes a joyful and heightened sensory awareness in the viewer, and creates both a psychological and physical response that taps into our personal relationship and response to colour”.

Double Fizz is a major new permanent indoor artwork by British artist Liz West, commissioned by Relentless Developments. The art is powered by formalighting, who supplied their architectural lighting solutions for this project. For further details about Double Fizz and about the future projects, please visit www.liz-west.com.