Wrapper

Wrapper is a permanent work of art by Jacqueline Poncelet, made especially to clad the new building and perimeter wall next to Edgware Road (Circle line) Tube station. The work, created in vitreous enamel, dresses the building in a grid of patterns developed by the artist. Each pattern relates to a different part of the local area and was made in response to the images and ideas that she has developed through her research there over a three year period prior to the completion of the work. Like an enormous patchwork, Wrapper tells the story of the place in which it sits, weaving together elements from local history and the natural environment, the area’s architecture and its people.

Set in the urban environment of central London, Wrapper joins a diverse landscape of buildings, with a mixture of scales, functions and architectural designs. It stands out as a bright and colourful object whilst simultaneously blending in as a new addition to an area already full of constructions of all kinds and ages, from office blocks and houses to shops and schools. A work on this scale could have dominated the area, but Poncelet’s mix of patterns brings a kind of fragmentation to the building that helps to integrate it with its neighbours. In the busy environment of the Edgware Road area, the design also reflects the way in which the building will be viewed: more often in parts than as a whole.

Depending on where the viewer stands in relation to the artwork, Wrapper reveals a variety of stories. From the station platform the fringe of the station’s roof can be recognised in the zig-zag pattern integrated into the work. On the other side of the building, local residents who can view it from their windows, or the people who pass by on foot, will see many more elements from the local area. The detailed tracings of leaves reference the trees in Regents Park, while the delicate water pattern suggests the Tyburn stream that runs underground nearby. Seen from a distance or as a fleeting glimpse from a vehicle on Marylebone Road, Poncelet’s patterns, some of which she made from a drawing of cars, look quite different again. The colours all reflect those of the Tube map, hinting at the building’s connection to it.

In Wrapper, and throughout Poncelet’s artistic practice, patterns and colours play a key role as storytellers. She uses them in carefully considered configurations and each has a very particular place and purpose in the overall composition. Through this visual choreography, the artist aims to generate illusionary spaces or simply to modulate stillness and movement. “A pattern not only speaks of other places, but of changes in our culture and the passage of time”, says Poncelet. With the patterns devised for Wrapper, she has replicated how we choose what we see in a complex and busy environment.

About the artist
Jacqueline Poncelet (born 1947, Liege, Belgium) studied ceramics at Wolverhampton College of Art and the Royal College of Art and was a major figure on the international ceramics scene in the 1970s and 80s. In the early 1990s she diversified her practice to include painting, sculpture and public art commissions. In 2000 Poncelet was one of the three curators of the British Art Show and collaboration has become an increasingly important part of her work. Most recently, she was responsible for designing ‘Wrapper’, the vitreous enamel cladding at Edgware Road station (the largest of its kind in Europe) and also collaborated with Tate and Melin Tregwynt woollen mill to create a homeware range inspired by her home in the Welsh Valleys.

Poncelet has lectured at a number of institutions, including the Royal College of Art and the University of Brighton, and has exhibited her work internationally in numerous solo and group shows. Her work can be seen in many public collections, including that of the V&A, London, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, and National Museum of Victoria, Australia.

Commissioned by Art on the Underground