Art And Architecture ” Turning The Place Over ” By Richard Wilson

Art And Architecture By Richard Wilson

The most daring piece of public art ever commissioned in the UK, Turning the Place Over is artist Richard Wilson’s most radical intervention into architecture to date, turning a building in Liverpool’s city centre literally inside out. One of Wilson’s very rare temporary works, Turning the Place Over colonises Cross Keys House, Moorfields. It runs in daylight hours, triggered by a light sensor.

Turning the Place Over consists of an 8 metres diameter ovoid cut from the façade of a building in Liverpool city centre and made to oscillate in three dimensions. The revolving façade rests on a specially designed giant rotator, usually used in the shipping and nuclear industries, and acts as a huge opening and closing ‘window’, offering recurrent glimpses of the interior during its constant cycle during daylight hours.

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MORE ABOUT TURNING THE PLACE OVER

This was made possible by mounting the ovoid section of architecture onto a central spindle, aligned at a specific angle to the building. When at rest the ovoid section of façade fitted flush into the rest of the building. The angled spindle was, however, placed on a set of powerful motorised industrial rollers, allowing it to rotate 360 degrees continuously. As it rotated, the facade not only became completely inverted but also oscillated into the building and out into the street, revealing the interior of the building, and only being flush with the building at one point during its rotation. This created an acute sense of disorientation and even danger for the viewer as the architecture physically encroaches on them.

You can check out Richard Wilson and more work HERE.