A piece of art set to cover a huge section of the iconic Printworks building has been unveiled as the £22m redevelopment of the building steams ahead. The work, by Manchester based artist Alex Sylt, was unveiled by Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim, at an event this morning (March 11) with the aim of being in place later this year.
The illustration features many references to Manchester's rich history and the Printworks building itself - which celebrated its 150th anniversary this year. The artworks will cover the 'Nuffield tower' wall which covers 215sqm and should coincide with the digital artwork ceiling, which will be the biggest of its kind in Europe.
Alex was chosen after a combination of a public vote and a selection panel, which included Norman Cook and Jason Shay, the centre director at Printworks. "It feels incredible," Alex told the Manchester Evening News.
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"It's a piece celebrating the history of Manchester and the history of the building. There are plenty of elements that celebrate Manchester’s history, through Alan Turing, the LBGTQ movement, the suffragette movement, all integrated into one piece surrounded by buildings and historical monuments of Manchester.
"It feels incredible just how many people will be seeing it, the scale of it is so massive, it’s a massive deal for me."
Norman Cook, who had played to a packed out crowd as Fatboy Slim at Victoria Warehouse the previous night, highlighted the importance of public art pieces like this and was very proud to have been involved in the selection process. "I just love public art, I love art that’s just for the people, not always just in art galleries," he said.
"Through that they invited me to be a guest judge in this selection process which was a lot of fun and not something I’d ever done before, it was a new experience for me. It was a lot of fun going through all the entries.
"It managed to encompass everything about Manchester, the culture the people, the architecture and put it all into one piece was quite a feat. To get that all into one piece and make it look really beautiful, because it could have been quite trainspotting, but it’s got to be something that everybody can enjoy.
"Rather than being too grey and industrial Manchester it used every single reference point but made it really beautiful. It’s a very positive piece. It’s great that it’s going to be there for a long, long time too, so in five years time you’re still going ‘ooh’."
Jason Shay added that this artwork and the upcoming digital ceiling - the largest in Europe - signal a very exciting time for the venue. He said: "We are in the middle of our £22mil redevelopment which is very exciting for me personally to get to this stage. This has been a four year journey just to get to this point so that later this year we will be able to unveil this beautiful piece of artwork on the 215sqm wall which will be a very unique canvas in its own right.
"But the idea is to brighten up Printworks and the internal space and when we launch with the artwork it will be with Europe’s largest digital ceiling bringing Printworks back into an iconic building like it has been for 150 years this year.
"I was very excited to be asked to be on the panel and it was clear to us that there were five incredible artists. Alex’s work stood out, the vibrancy, the colour, his idea to incorporate the buildings and the iconic features of Manchester and to put that into such an iconic building like Printworks. Absolutely we are very excited with what he’s done and very pleased for him as an artist as well.
"You’re definitely not going to miss it. It’s going to be bright, it’s going to be large, it’s going to be unique, and we’re looking forward to being able to unveil it fully later this year."
Jason added that much of the scaffolding currently surrounding the building and lining the inside should start to come down in the coming months. He described it as a long journey they've been on for the last four years to bring Printworks back to life, and that there will definitely be a party to celebrate once it's finished.
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