Kirsty Brooks
As an architectural glass artist, I work mostly to commission, responding to and creating a dialogue with the space in question. Screens, canopies, windows, walls or feature panels are produced for a variety of corporate, public and private locations. Whilst developing ideas, I work with photography as a means of accurately capturing an object, atmosphere or quality of light. My work utilises a combination of imagery and ideas drawn from the surrounding environment. I photograph or scan objects or textures and digitally manipulate and overlay them, playing with the scale and its eventual impact. The resulting composites are digitally printed onto film or screen-printed using glass enamels onto large sheets of float glass. These are often layered or obscured with textured, sandblasted and acid etched panels. These sheets of glass are either suspended using tensile cables or framed within the fabric of the building. Each piece is created specifically for the surrounding architecture and location and incorporates ideas relating to the function of the building and its aesthetic qualities. In reflecting and magnifying the often unexamined details and overall qualities of the location, I aim to root the artwork and achieve a synthesis with its surroundings.
P R O F I L E :
Experienced public realm artist, creating site-specific artworks in glass, concrete and metal. Collaborative working practice with architects, landscape designers, developers and clients producing interventions which create and reinforce a sense of place. Artworks evolved through community interactions, archive research and photographic surveying. Teaching, mentoring, workshops, public engagement, visual communication and design consultation.
C O M M I S S I O N S :
Public Realm:
2024 One Maidenhead Development – Landscape screens & design specifications
2023 Waterside Quarter, Maidenhead - vinyl artwork for riverside mixed development
2023 Heyford Park Village, Oxfordshire - proposals, consultations and workshops
2019 The Barcode Cinema, Plymouth - external glass balustrades
2018 Student Accommodation, Mill Road, Cambridge - glazed façade and benches
2015 Kirkstall Bridge Retail Development – glass clock tower
2014/6 Glasgow Fort Retail Development – free-standing screens in landscape
2012 Fashion Avenue, Port Baku, Azerbaijan – external printed glass screens for retail area
2009 Pembroke Gardens, Bridlington – glass screens as part of seafront redevelopment
Education:
2016 St John’s College, Oxford University – 15 metre long glass artwork for linking passage
2013 National Film School, IADT, Dun Laoghaire, Ireland – façade artwork and graphics
2013 Finton House School, Tooting, London - printed glass walls for sunken courtyard
2007 South Bromsgrove High School – workshops and library commission
2004 Thames Valley Adventure Playground, Maidenhead – memorial window
Healthcare:
2022 The Marillac Neurological Centre, Brentwood - centenary artwork
2017 Great Ormond Street Hospital - lightbox artwork for Hedgehog ward reception area
2012 Nuffield Hospital, Woodingdean – sandblasted desks and vinyl artworks
2011 Blackburn Health Centre, Lancashire – 104 reception & waiting area artworks
2010 Cheltenham General Hospital – interactive artworks for new stroke and dementia wards
2009 Harperbury Hospital, Radlett, Herts – glass artwork for new LSU/PICU unit
Culture:
2012 The Novium Museum, Chichester – façade artwork next to roman baths
2008 Bournemouth Pavilion – workshops and metal artwork for building façade
2006 Belfast Grand Opera House – screen printed balustrades based on performance history
Retail:
2012 John Lewis, Newbury – digitally printed window artwork for building exterior
1999 Bluewater Shopping Centre, Greenhithe, Kent - sandblasted balustrades
Restaurants and Hotels:
2010 St Pancras Hotel, London – printed glass restaurant screens
2005 Barcelona Hilton – kiln formed, film and hanging features in five parts
1998 Café des Amis Restaurant, Covent Garden, London - glass wall and partitions
Housing:
2008 Barratt Homes, Chelmsford – stairwell glass artwork with Max Jacquard
2004 Chance de Silva Architects - ‘Cargo Fleet’, London, etch film installation on glass façade
2000 Look Ahead Housing Project, Hammersmith, London - glass frontage and door
1999 Barn Conversion, Cark and Cartmel, Lake District - folding glass doors
Corporate:
2004 FSA, Head Office, Canary Wharf – re-configured restaurant screens.
2003 McGraw-Hill Publishing, Canary Wharf, London – glass wall and printed tray cupboards
2003 BP Headquarters, Sunbury on Thames – Screen-printed, backlit glass panel
2003 HSBC, Pall Mall, London – layered and sandblasted glass wall sculpture
2000 Morgan Stanley, Canary Wharf, London - 19 printed and sandblasted reception panels
2000 Dennis Publishing, London – silk-screened and sandblasted office screens
2000 Microsoft Head Office, Soho, London - silk-screened canopy
1999 F.S.A. Head Office, Canary Wharf, London- restaurant screens and signage
S E L E C T E D E X H I B I T I O N S :
2016 'Transitions: ECA Glass Alumni Exhibition', Edinburgh College of Art
2014 ‘Just Glass – The Art of the Possible’, PM Gallery, London
2008 ‘Glass Light and Space’, Koukan Gallery, London
2007 ‘Treading the Boards’, Phoenix Gallery, The Grand Opera House, Belfast
2005 ‘Designers’ Block’, Shoreditch High Street, London
2004/5 ‘Fragile Cargo’ Touring – Budapest, Kaposvar, St Helens, London, Bruges, Tilburg
2003 ‘Nou Vitrall’, College of Architects and Technical Engineers, Barcelona
‘Henley Arts and Music Festival’, Henley, Oxfordshire
2002 ‘Connections’, Espai Vidre Gallery, Barcelona, Spain
‘ART 2002’, Business Design Centre, Islington, London
2001 ‘Tracks’ Platform for Art, Gloucester Road Tube Station, London
2000 ‘Sub – Urban Glass’, Gloucester Road Tube Station, London
1995 ‘New Designers’, Business Design Centre, Islington, London
T E A C H I N G :
Mentoring: One to one mentoring, 'Link Up' scheme for disabled artists
Visiting Lecturer: Richmond Adult Community College, University College for the Creative Arts at Farnham, Westminster Adult Education College, Roehampton Institute
Selected Workshops: Communities: Blackburn: Over 50s, Age Concern, Sure Start Centre; Special Voices, Slough (parents with disabled children); Action on Addiction, Pavilion Gardens (general public) and Pavilion Tea Dance in Bournemouth. Schools: SEGRO Young Artists project with Furze Platt Senior School, Maidenhead, Berkshire; St Mary's R.C. Primary, Maidenhead; Queen Elizabeth School, Wimborne, Dorset; Blandford St Mary's Primary, Dorset; South Bromsgrove High School; ‘Artbeat’ at Bethnal Green Technology College
E D U C A T I O N :
2011 – 2013 Greenwich University: PGCE (Lifelong Learning Sector)
1992 - 1995 Edinburgh College of Art: BA (Hons) Architectural Glass & Painting
1991 - 1992 Wimbledon School of Art: NCFEAD Foundation Diploma
P U B L I C A T I O N S :
Contemporary Glass – Ed. Blanche Craig, Black Dog Publishing 2008
Colours of Architecture – by Andrew Moor, Mitchell Beazley, 2006
Transparent – Interior Elements by Elspeth Pridham, Mitchell Beazley 2003