Max Jacquard

This huge cast glass screen weighing around 200kg was the result of a close collaboration between Max and Architect James Parritt of Parritt Leng Architects.

The idea was to create a large filter to the light entering the hallway of a spacious Victorian town house in Hampstead. The client wanted a key feature for his focal area that gave a sense of calmness and illumination to the whole apartment.

The first meeting between Artist and Architect took place on the bank of the Thames near Greenwich and this was to prove the inspiration for the final piece created by making a mould from the very bed of the river itself and including all kinds of fascinating artifacts collected from the immediate vicinity . The texture of the casting is actually a perfect negative of the texture of shingle and sand left by the river at low tide, the objects concealed within this texture reveal themselves to the viewer over time.

The piece really has a contemplative quality somewhat like a lunar landscape and is constantly changing with the light entering the hallway. At 2.3m tall by 1.6m wide and up to 35mm thick in places the slab is the largest cast by Glassforms in association with Les Leeson of Paragon Glass. The bespoke metal frame by Red House is supremely elegant and does justice to the optical clarity of the glass filter.

The full story of the making of this wonderful piece is told in a fully illustrated booklet ‘Thames Riverbed Crystallised‘ available for £10 plus P+P. Please contact max@maxjacquard.com to request a copy.