Panorama

Commissioned by Susan Daniel-McElroy, Director of Tate St Ives, I produced an installation for the 55- foot long curved exhibition space. This consisted of over 100 ceramic pieces. The catalogue essay ‘Richard Slee, Grand Wizard’ was written by curator and historian, Dr. Oliver Watson of the V&A. In 2002, I had been commissioned to make an installation at the St Pancras Art and Design Show which led on to working on the idea of a ‘panoramic’ view rather than the fixed perspective of the St Pancras work done in response to the specific high Victorian interior. Panorama formed a narrative of the imagination that could be read from any point, challenging any linear reading or sequence. The title was chosen not just because of the sweep of the showcase but to present a continuously passing scene that did not rely on a central, classical viewpoint. As Daniel-McElroy succinctly described my thoughts in the catalogue, the work consisted of ‘seemingly desperate elements of a story, including an appropriated rabbit, belle tents, frightened balls of fluff, various weaponry, an aeroplane for a quick getaway, a bedroom snake and one hundred chocolate logs, surrounded a duck who swims against the tide’. Panorama toured onto the Ruthin Crafts Centre, Wales, then returned by special request to Tate St Ives. An expanded version was exhibited under the title Panoramas for The Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Orkney