Poured Lines : Southwark Street by Ian Davenport

April 10, 2009
Text on the plate you can see in last picture
'Poured Lines : Southwark Street' is a Land Securities and Southwark Council art commission as part of the Southwark Street Gateway Improvement Project, one of the wider initiatives for regenerating Bankside's streetscape.
To make one of his signature 'poured' works at this location, Ian Davenport devised a new technique pouring liquid enamel in hundreds of different colours onto steel panels, using gravity to form a series of lines down each panel.
Once the enamel was applied each panel was then fired in a huge furnace at 825°C to harden the surface making it durable in the outdoor urban environment.
Davenport has achieved a fine balance controlling the application of the enamel whilst allowing the unpredictability of the material to play a part.
Chance indicates that some lines run into each other, colour intensity fluctuates and the overall composition across 48 panels pulses with intense rhythm.
The artist, who is Southwark based, was influenced by sources as diverse as Italian Renaissance frescoes, music and TV cartoons. The painting does not have one dominant theme as the artist wants to allow a very open reading and interpretation of his work.
Opened 6th September 2006.